( Yonhap ) Kakao Bank , South Korea ’ s biggest direct bank , announced Monday it would start selling housing deposit loan products for either a two - year period jeonse ( lease with down payment ) contract or monthly rent , from Tuesday . A face - to - face process when submitting documents will not be required , like other products of the online - only bank , partly with the help of scraping technologies that enable the bank to extract documents regarding housing deposit loan borrowers ’ identification . The announcement marks a step forward for the bank that has moved to expand its lending business portfolio . Since the launch in July 2017 , Kakao Bank has only sold consumer loan products .   A Kakao Bank user may take out six - month convertible floating rate loans for up to 222 million won ( $ 210 , 000 ) , with a yearly interest rate of 2 . 82 percent or more . The rate is subject to changes based on the cost of funds index ( Cofix ) on monthly acquired new funds , which stood at 1 . 79 percent in December . Borrowers can repay the loans over at most three years . In compliance with prerequisites suggested by the state - run Korea Housing Finance Corporation , those buying houses which cost more than 400 million won in areas near Seoul or 200 million won in other areas cannot apply . Also , those employed for less than one year or those who already took out loans for housing deposits will be rejected from loans while screening . Throughout the screening process , users give Kakao permission to access their digital signature certificates by the government . The bank ’ s scraping technology then scans the documents stored in the certificates , which contain proof of identity , family and marriage status , as well as other data . The information will then automatically be sent to a center staffed by 22 employees through scraping technologies . The government ‘ s decision Monday to repeal the mandatory use of digital authentication certificate would not pose a hurdle , as those documents can also be stored in certificates developed by the bank and is valid for user verification , said Kim Woo - tae , an official at the Korea Housing Finance Corporation . Kakao Bank has yet to come up with an alternative plan in response , said a media representative of the bank . Separately , borrowers should send images of the housing contract and the receipt to the center . A user can even apply for the loans on weekends , according to the bank . The screening process is trackable via the Kakao Bank mobile app . A borrower would be able to enjoy a more convenient and faster way through its branchless service , Paolo Lee , a Kakao Bank official in charge of financial product sales , said in a press briefing Monday . “ Users had to go through a cumbersome process when borrowing housing deposit loans from conventional banks , ” he said . “ Borrowers had to visit an offline bank branch three or four times , cannot figure out how much the screening proceeded , while the process pauses on weekends . ” He added a second loan product is designed to appeal to those in their 20 s and 30 s , which account for 63 . 8 percent of all of its 5 million account holders . The new product is modeled to be extended to at most 150 borrowers a day , following its internal simulation , according to the bank . Kakao Bank has drawn deposits and savings worth 5 . 2 trillion won as of Jan . 7 , while extending loans worth 4 . 8 trillion won . The bank also issued stocks to raise 500 billion won of capital in September . By Son Ji - hyoung ( consnow @ heraldcorp . com ) [ 코리아 헤럴드 ] [ K - POP HERALD ] [ 페이스북 ] <ⓒ KoreaHerald ( www . koreaherald . com ) 무단 전재 및 재 배포 금지 >