At around 7:30 p.m. the previous day, a glitch in its mobile app allowed users to exchange yen at a rate of roughly 470 Korean won per 100 yen. Given that the actual market rate was approximately 934 won, the currency was traded at about half its market value.
While Toss Bank immediately suspended transactions upon discovering the error, the glitch reportedly incurred losses of approximately 10 billion won.
Some users who had set up automated buy orders found transactions already processed, while others rushed to purchase yen after receiving alerts of the sudden price drop.
Transactions resumed at 9:00 p.m. after a suspension of around two hours.
The financial watchdog seeks to investigate the cause of the system failure, the total volume of transactions, and the potential impact on users.
This is not the first time Toss Bank has mismanaged exchange rate settings. In September 2022, the bank displayed the FX rate at 1,290 per dollar for nearly 30 minutes, despite the actual rate exceeding 1,400 at the time.
The incident adds to a string of clerical errors across the financial sector. In February last year, Hana Bank mistakenly posted the Vietnamese dong at one-tenth of its actual value, leading to the cancellation of transactions.
In January this year, cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb failed to recover approximately 13 billion won ($9.8 million) worth of assets after a clerical error led to the over-distribution of 620,000 bitcoins.
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