"You Have Dormant Prepaid Funds"... Plans to Notify Users and Facilitate Refunds for Long-Unused Balances

Notify users of long-unused prepaid balances
Easy refunds at users' request
Three Big Tech companies take part on their own initiative

Financial authorities will improve the relevant system so users are periodically notified of long-unused prepaid pay- and money-type balances and can reclaim them.

The Financial Services Commission and the Financial Supervisory Service said on October 15 that, together with three Big Tech companies—Naver Financial, Kakao Pay, and Viva Republica—they would draw up measures to strengthen notifications to users about long-unused prepaid pay- and money-type balances and encourage refunds.

The move comes as use of prepaid pay- and money-type services has expanded, led by the three Big Tech companies. These prepaid balances can be used at numerous merchants and have validity periods of 10 years or more, allowing users to claim refunds even after a long period. However, users often topped up their prepaid balances and then left them untouched, having forgotten that they still had funds remaining.

First, the authorities plan to require users to be notified about long-unused prepaid balances. Prepaid issuers will classify balances as long-unused if one year or more, or two years or more, has passed since the user last topped up or used them. Issuers will then notify users holding such balances at least once a year that they have funds remaining and provide details such as the validity period.

The authorities also decided that refund information will be provided when users are notified about long-unused prepaid balances, making it easier for them to claim refunds. Users will be able to receive their pay- or money-type balances in cash through the refund menu provided in the notification. This will simplify the cumbersome process of having to find the refund menu on a website or app and apply for a refund themselves.

The Financial Services Commission said it expects a culture of consumer protection to spread more widely throughout the electronic financial services industry, following the example set by the three Big Tech companies, which took the lead in improving their systems on their own initiative.

Financial authorities plan to strengthen protections for users of electronic financial services by sharing the three Big Tech companies' system implementation practices with the broader industry.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.