Shared bank accounts in South Korea, once introduced as a simple way to manage group expenses, have evolved into flexible financial tools used for everything from splitting household bills to organizing fan club dues.
A 34-year-old woman, surnamed Kim, and her husband opened a shared account after getting married late last year. Each deposits 1 million won monthly to cover shared expenses like groceries and dining out. Any spending over 100,000 won requires mutual consent. “We don’t have children yet and both of us work, so we decided to gradually combine our finances, starting with living expenses,” Kim said. “Whatever’s left after contributing to the joint account, we manage separately for savings or investments.”
First launched by KakaoBank in late 2018, these “group accounts” allow two or more users to access a single account and view transactions in real time. Today, about one in five South Koreans uses one. While younger generations tend to use group accounts for daily budgeting or shared couple expenses, older users continue to rely on them for managing club or travel-related dues.
KakaoBank’s group accounts, which have 11.3 million users, show that 45% of those using them for dating expenses, such as meals and movie tickets, are in their 30s, while 42.5% are in their 20s, as of the first quarter this year. After marriage, many shift to using the accounts for household expenses, with 43.4% of users in their 30s and 25.3% in their 40s using them for this purpose.
The most active users are in their 30s and 40s, many of whom are in dual-income households. According to Statistics Korea, a record 58.2% of newlywed couples were both working as of last year. This trend has led more couples to manage their finances jointly, at least for shared living costs. A survey by a matchmaking agency also found that only two in 10 couples rely on one partner to handle all household finances.
For users in their 30s and 40s managing daily expenses, the average balance in group accounts is 1.97 million won, roughly 30% higher than the 1.53 million won average across all users in the same age range.
Older generations continue to use group accounts in more traditional ways. Among users in their 60s and above, about 70% opened accounts to manage dues for social or fan clubs. KakaoBank attributes this trend in part to the growing fandom culture among middle-aged Koreans, especially following the popularity of singer Lim Young-woong.
The share of group account users in their 60s and older jumped from just 1.5% in 2020 to 6.9% by the end of last year. Among them, 10% said they opened an account specifically for fan club activities, with group account names such as “70th Birthday with Young-woong,” “Lee Chan-won Mom Fan Club,” and “Forever Jeong Dong-won” increasingly common.
KakaoBank, which launched the product six years ago, currently dominates the group account market. However, traditional banks are beginning to catch up, drawn by the product’s low interest burden and potential to broaden their customer base.
