Shinhan Financial Group connected the Fraud Detection Systems (FDS) of its banks, credit cards, securities firms, and insurance companies to share suspected voice phishing information in real time. As a result, over 3.4 billion won in customer assets were protected within approximately four months. This achievement stems from expanding the voice phishing response system — previously limited to individual financial institutions — across the entire Shinhan Financial Group, thereby preventing losses from spreading through credit card loans and cash services.
According to the financial sector on the 3rd, Shinhan Financial launched a 'One-Stop Joint Response Service for Voice Phishing Among Group Companies' on April 10 last year, involving Shinhan Bank, Shinhan Card, Shinhan Investment Corp., and Shinhan Life. The system connects the FDS of affiliated companies to immediately disseminate relevant information to other affiliates upon detecting suspicious transactions related to voice phishing. It was introduced for the first time in the financial industry after receiving designation as an Innovative Financial Service by the Financial Services Commission (FSC) in September last year.
As of the end of last month, a total of 4,205 cases of suspected information transmitted by Shinhan Financial affiliates to other affiliates were recorded. Of these, 2,836 cases received based on each affiliate’s own criteria were analyzed, revealing 182 abnormal transactions and preventing asset losses totaling 3.441 billion won in advance. The total number of suspected information sharing cases, including both transmission and reception, reached 7,041.
By affiliate, Shinhan Card demonstrated the greatest preventive effect. Based on received information, Shinhan Card identified 147 cases, preventing losses of 3.227 billion won, accounting for approximately 94% of the total prevented amount (81% of identified cases). Shinhan Bank detected 35 abnormal transactions and protected 185 million won. Shinhan Life’s direct and indirect prevention amounted to 29 million won.
For example, if Shinhan Bank detects a suspected voice phishing transaction in an account and notifies Shinhan Card, the card company strengthens monitoring to block additional execution of services such as credit card loans and cash advances. Conversely, suspicious information identified by the card company can be transmitted to the bank to proactively restrict follow-up transactions such as fund transfers or loans.
However, the 3.441 billion won figure represents 'direct and indirect prevention amount,' which is the sum of account balances protected through payment suspensions after detection and additional losses prevented, rather than the actual attempted amount by fraud organizations. In Shinhan Life’s case, potential protected assets such as surrender values from insurance contracts for risky customers were also included in addition to the detected abnormal transaction amounts.
Previously, financial institutions had relied on their own FDS to detect suspected voice phishing accounts and restrict transactions, but lacked a legal basis for immediate information sharing among affiliates, limiting their ability to prevent simultaneous losses through loans, credit card loans, and cash services. With the Financial Services Commission’s designation of Innovative Financial Service, Shinhan Financial affiliates can now share real-time information limited to data necessary for voice phishing prevention — including integrated group IDs, transaction types, timestamps, and risk levels — enabling enhanced customer verification and measures such as transaction suspensions.
Recently, the Financial Services Commission has announced plans to relax regulations on information sharing among financial holding company affiliates for business and marketing purposes, expanding the scope of data utilization and sharing. Consequently, comprehensive voice phishing detection capabilities at the financial holding company level are expected to be further strengthened. It is also anticipated that the overall financial industry’s voice phishing prevention network will become more robust through integration with platforms such as A-SAP (AI platform for voice phishing information sharing and analysis) operated by financial authorities.
A Shinhan Financial official stated, "We have established a group-wide joint response system that reduces blind spots in combating financial fraud by connecting abnormal transaction information held by individual group companies in real time." The official added, "Moving forward, we will consolidate the group’s data and AX (AI transformation) and digital capabilities to further enhance the speed and accuracy of our response to financial fraud."
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