The Ministry of Justice, in cooperation with the Korea Financial Telecommunications and Clearings Institute, on May 30 announced the expansion of a service to verify the ID of expats when they do transactions in the secondary financial sector. Shown is a scene at Woori Bank headquarters in Seoul's Jung-gu District. (Yonhap News)

By Lee Dasom

Registered expats can more conveniently conduct transactions on the secondary financial market.

The Ministry of Justice and the Korea Financial Telecommunications and Clearings Institute on May 30 announced the expansion of the Residence Card Verification Service to the sector.

Under the service, the ministry checks the authenticity of a registered expat's profile information and photo when the latter seeks to do financial transactions that require ID verification and sends the results in real time to the financial company concerned.

Initially launched in September 2023 on the first financial market, the service underwent pilot operations in January at targeted financial institutions in the second financial sector.

Last month, the ministry officially launched the service for the second sector at seven financial institutions after confirming the system's stability and positive user responses. The plan is for the program to cover all financial institutions after June.

The ministry said, "Foreign residence cards can be verified in real time, so like Korean nationals, registered expats can conveniently and equally conduct financial transactions at branches of financial institutions like banks, credit card and securities companies, and insurers as well as through mobile apps and the web."

The list of financial companies offering this service is on the Korean Immigration Office's website (www.immigration.go.kr) or Hi Korea (www.hikorea.go.kr), a government portal on immigration and living in the country.

dlektha0319@korea.kr