Quick take:
- Woori Bank has jumped on the metaverse race with a 3D pilot service.
- The company plans to launch a metaverse banking branch in the first half of 2023.
- The bank plans to offer two services, one for interaction with small businesses and another for educating its employees.
Woori Bank has launched a 3D metaverse banking service for small businesses. The Korean commercial banking giant is joining a growing list of financial institutions that have launched metaverse experiences.
HSBC, Fidelity, UAE’s Commercial Bank International and South Africa’s Nedbank have all launched 3D virtual experiences in the metaverse. Companies are looking to pounce on an opportunity that could be worth $5 trillion by 2030 according to a report by market research company McKinsey & Co.
The metaverse allows businesses to offer immersive 3D experiences like gaming, trading, education and virtual events. However, more companies offering mainstream services like banking are now flocking in to tap into the digital economy.
Woori Bank’s small business metaverse banking service will offer experiences through both PCs and mobile devices. The service will run from 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM enabling users to “telecommunicate with the head of the centre about government-subsidized loans, commercial district and location analysis, and support for establishing various business plans,” the bank said in a press release on Friday.
The new metaverse service is an upgrade of Woori’s 2D banking experience “Woori Metabranch”, which has now been transformed into an immersive 3D experience.
According to the announcement, Woori, which is one of Korea’s four biggest banking commercial and corporate banking institutions also plans to offer 3D virtual training services to its employees in the metaverse.
Employees can get training and lectures from invited specialists in the digital space which complemented the drawbacks of both in-person and contactless education,” said the bank.
The training program is part of the company’s strategy of strengthening its employees’ digital capabilities through a cyber training centre.
Commenting on the metaverse service launch, a Woori Bank official said: “We plan to officially launch the metaverse service in the first half of this year by reflecting user feedback. We will provide various services so that customers can experience [them] through various mediums such as XR devices.”
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