Toss Bank headquarters in Gangnam District, Seoul / Newsis
A system error at Toss Bank briefly caused the Japanese yen to be offered at about half of its correct exchange rate, prompting the financial watchdog to launch an on-site inspection, the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) said Wednesday.
The malfunction happened in the internet-only bank’s mobile app for about seven minutes, from 7:29 p.m. to 7:36 p.m. Tuesday. During that time, the app displayed an exchange rate of about 472 won per 100 yen, even though the market rate was around 934 won.
Some users were reportedly able to purchase yen during the glitch at about half price, either through preset automatic buy orders or after logging in following alerts about the sudden price drop.
“The incorrect rate appeared temporarily during an internal system check,” a Toss Bank official said.
The bank is believed to be estimating potential losses from the incident at about 10 billion won ($6.8 million).
After discovering the problem, Toss Bank suspended yen exchange services and later resumed normal operations around 9 p.m. that day.
Authorities and the bank are now reviewing the cause of the error and the scale of the affected transactions.
“Whether the trades should be reversed and what form of compensation may be offered to customers will be decided after the review,” an FSS official said.
Similar incidents have occurred in the past. In February last year, Hana Bank mistakenly posted the Vietnamese dong exchange rate at about one-tenth of its actual value.
Source: Korea Times News
