President Kim Ju-ha of  NH Bank.

A view of the NACF and NH Bank building in Seoul.(Photos:NACF)

For the first time in its history, NH Bank had no fraud incidents last month. Fraud such as someone attempting to steal money from someone else’s accounts by manipulating electronic systems (which is sometimes called “fishing” and “smishing”) has been a growing concern in banking community in Korea.

President Kim Ju-ha of the bank was so glad that no such incidents occurred in the month that he congratulated everyone at the bank. He had a very good reason to be so proud, as there used to be 30 to 40 incidents of fraud per month.

Manager Sohn Byung-hwan of the Smart Finance Department, boasted that their measures have played a key role in preventing such incidents. Those include implementing a 30-minute delay in the withdrawal of money from a bank account through the electronic systems. 

“We had a month with no incidents to cheat the bank for the first time in our history,” he told a group of reporters.

The NH Security Credit Card that the bank issued for the first time in March has also had no incidents to swindle the bank since its launch.

The credit card needs to be connected with android smart phones to be able to conduct internet banking and smart banking in order to prevent cases of fraud. In July, some 60,000 credit cards were distributed to the bank’s clients. 

Manager Sohn said customers know the credit card can prevent fraud incidents involving electronic banking systems, so that sharply increased demand for the card.  

The bank plans to tighten the measures to prevent fraud incidents from happening throughout the entire third quarter.

Nonghyup Bank provides specialized agricultural and commercial credit and banking services in South Korea. The company’s deposit products include demand, time, savings, installment, and foreign currency deposits, as well as certificates of deposit. 

Its loan portfolio comprises mortgage and home equity, and other retail loans; working capital loans, facilities loans, and collective housing loans for large corporate, and small and medium-sized enterprise customers; agricultural policy loans funded by the government; and credit card products. 

The company also offers foreign exchange, ATM, bill paying, payroll, check-cashing, currency exchange and wire fund transfer services.