Preparations for the "bank agency" program, which the financial authorities had pledged to start as a pilot in the first half, are finally nearing completion after twists and turns. The bank agency program is a system that helps residents in areas without bank branches handle banking services at places like post offices.
According to the financial sector on the 21st, the four major commercial banks (KB Kookmin, Shinhan, Hana, Woori) and Korea Post are holding regular working-level meetings to decide which products to handle in the bank agency pilot program.
The bank agency program is a system in which a third party, not a bank, performs banking services on behalf of a bank. It emerged to address declining financial access for vulnerable groups as banks reduced the number of branches in provincial areas. Countries such as Australia and Japan have run bank agency services through local post offices for 20 to 30 years, and the Yoon Suk-yeol administration benchmarked this and began procedures to introduce the system in July 2023.
However, momentum was slow because the bank agency program was perceived as a "previous administration policy."
A ruling party official said, "Within the authorities, there were views such as, 'It's a policy from the previous administration, so let's resolve it quickly and move on,' and, 'It's a policy from the previous administration, so do we really need to push it proactively?'"
In March 2025, the Financial Services Commission announced, "We will designate bank agency services as an innovative financial service in July this year and start a pilot within the year." But the schedule was delayed when President Lee Jae-myung took office three months later, and designation of the bank agency service as an innovative financial service did not take place until late December last year. As a result, the start of the pilot was pushed back by half a year.
An official at the Financial Services Commission (FSC) said, "Most of the products to be handled at post offices have been decided. The start date for the pilot has not been finalized, but we believe a first-half launch is possible."
Banks and post offices were said to have been skeptical about moving forward with the project. A financial industry official said, "From the banks' perspective, if they have the post office, which inevitably has low understanding and proficiency in bank services, sell products and something goes wrong, they would have to bear greater responsibility," adding, "That's why the sentiment that 'do we really need to do this' was widespread."
The official also said, "The post office has its own products and core duties, and there was a mood of questioning where the capacity would come from to sell other institutions' products that they don't even know well."
The number of bank branches continues to decline. It fell about 20% from 3,304 in 2020 to 2,685 in 2025. In five years, one out of every five bank branches closed. The decline was particularly steep in regions with large elderly populations, such as Jeju (-26.3%), South Jeolla (-25%), South Gyeongsang (-22.3%), and North Gyeongsang (-20.9%).