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K-Bank Soars from Strength to Strength

Korea's first online lender K-Bank has racked up over 200,000 customers since its launch on April 3, with total deposits reaching W230 billion, the bank said Tuesday (US$1=W1,143). In turn the bank has already approved W130 billion worth of loans.

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April 7 customer data submitted by K-Bank show the pattern one might expect. City dwellers in their 20s and 30s, who are typically online-savvy, make up the bulk, while just two percent are adventurous clients over 60, according to analysis by Minjoo Party lawmaker Park Yong-jin.

Some 39 percent are in their 30s, 31 percent in their 40s, 17 percent in their 20s and 11 percent in their 50s.

The appeal is also distinctly metropolitan, with more than 60 percent living in Seoul, surrounding Gyeonggi Province or neighboring Incheon.

But that is also the home of over half the Korean population, giving the bank a solid base.

The remaining accounts were opened in the Chungcheong provinces, Gangwon Province and the cosmopolitan resort island of Jeju.

The pattern for loan accounts is more or less the same.

The average deposit was W940,000, while the average loan was W5.63 million. Customers with solid credit ratings pay interest in the three-percent range, much the same as elsewhere, but those with less stellar ratings pay in the mid six-percent, which is four to 10 percentage points less than at offline banks.

The bank's app had been downloaded by 360,000 people by April 7, so presumably many people are still deciding whether to open accounts or are simply curious.

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