It's 3 trillion won in lost card points...Financial sector's reasons for the emergency call for failed profits

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South Korea's financial industry is on alert as AI agents that compare financial products and move money for customers are becoming a reality. Financial companies could lose about 500 billion won in yearly earnings that they have benefited from because customers have not claimed their money or visited their accounts.

According to the financial industry on the 22nd, AI agents such as Meta's "Muse" and OpenAI's "Dots," which carry out different tasks for people, are expected to change many parts of everyday financial life.

Older AI tools mainly compared financial products or gave people information. Newer AI agents can also carry out real tasks, such as signing up for products, canceling them, and making payments, with users' approval. If these agents gain wider access to financial accounts, they could find forgotten bank deposits, insurance payouts, and card points that are about to expire, then move the money into financial products that offer better returns.

According to financial authorities, forgotten or unclaimed financial assets totaled 18.4482 trillion won at the end of June last year. Bank deposits and savings accounts made up the largest share, at 7.52 trillion won. Insurance money came next at 5.85 trillion won, followed by card points at 2.906 trillion won, securities at 2.686 trillion won, and trust assets at 102.1 billion won. These are assets that people have not claimed because they forgot about their accounts or insurance money, or because the process of claiming them was too difficult.

Financial companies are estimated to earn hundreds of billions of won a year from managing these assets. If about 15.5 trillion won, excluding card points, earns an annual return of 3%, it would generate about 466 billion won a year. Add the 71.7 billion won in card points that expired in 2024, and the total reaches about 538 billion won.

One reason forgotten money benefits financial companies is that it costs them little to obtain. Banks can use this money to provide loans or invest in securities while paying relatively low interest on deposits that customers have not claimed.

Insurance companies also manage money set aside for insurance payments that customers have not claimed, paying interest according to the terms of their policies. For some policies, interest stops after a certain period following the maturity date. The longer customers leave their money unclaimed, the more time financial companies have to use these funds at a low cost.

In fact, consumers received 1.6329 trillion won through a campaign run by financial authorities last year to help people find forgotten financial assets. If AI carries out this kind of search continuously, the amount of unclaimed money held by financial companies could fall.

Bank deposits that pay just 0.01% interest a year could also become less common. At the end of July, demand deposits at South Korean banks totaled 681 trillion won. If AI starts moving money that customers have left in low-interest accounts out of convenience or because they have not paid attention, and finds higher-interest products for them in real time, banks could face higher costs to obtain funds.

Financial companies in other countries are also watching how AI agents may change the industry. McKinsey, a global consulting firm, estimated that $23 trillion of the world's $70 trillion in consumer deposits is held in accounts that allow deposits and withdrawals but pay little interest. The firm predicts that if just 5–10% of this money moves into higher-interest products, banks' profits related to deposits could fall by more than 20%. This means that an existing way of making money, which depends on customers paying little attention or finding it difficult to switch financial products, is now under threat.

Consumers are also expected to become more active in financial disputes. AI can review insurance policies, loan contracts, transaction records, and customer service records to find evidence that supports consumers. It can even help write complaints and requests to settle disputes. According to the Financial Supervisory Service, 128,419 complaints about financial services were filed last year, 10.4% more than the year before. If AI helps close the information gap between financial companies and consumers, more people may raise complaints about problems they previously did not challenge.

Financial companies are responding in two ways: speeding up their own AI development while also being cautious about outside AI services entering the financial market. Shinhan Bank has introduced AI agents for managing assets at its sales locations, while Woori Bank is working to build more than 175 AI agents. Meanwhile, some U.S. financial companies, including JPMorgan Chase & Co., are taking steps to limit outside AI agents' access to customer accounts because of security concerns.