As volatility in the won-dollar exchange rate has grown recently, fake news claiming that "dollar exchanges are being restricted" has spread, stoking anxiety among financial consumers. The government views this as market-disrupting behavior and plans to take stern action, including referring cases to the police, in consultation with relevant agencies.
According to the financial sector on the 3rd, a post saying "dollar exchange regulations are starting" spread quickly across the industry the previous afternoon. The post claimed that the current daily exchange limit of $10,000 would be restricted to $10,000 per month and $30,000 per year. As the news spread, users on online communities responded by asking, "Do we need to buy dollars right now?"
The Ministry of Finance and Economy officially said the claim is clearly fake news. The rumor appears to have spread in connection with a change to Hana Bank's exchange service limits that took effect the same day. Hana Bank created new limits for its mobile exchange service "Exchange Wallet," changing the previous "100,000 won per day" to "100,000 won per day, $10,000 per month, $30,000 per year." Given that non-face-to-face exchanges make repeated transactions easy in a short period, the move is seen as setting limits to manage total volume.
A banking industry official said, "A considerable number of customers felt anxious and made actual inquiries," and added, "This rumor is not the first, which seems to have further stoked consumer anxiety." A few days earlier, after President Lee Jae-myung mentioned invoking an emergency decree on finance and the economy, a rumor spread that the government would force individuals to sell their dollar holdings.
The government plans to define fake news as market-disrupting behavior and activate a pan-government response system. On the day, the finance ministry held a meeting of the pan-government "illegal foreign exchange transaction response team" at the Seoul Bankers Association building, chaired by Moon Ji-seong, director-general for international economic affairs at the ministry. Relevant agencies, including the banking sector, agreed to immediately share detected market-disrupting behavior with the response team and take measures such as filing reports with the police.