Hana Bank, KISA develop real-time smishing detection service

Hana Bank announced Friday that it has developed a real-time smishing detection service for its mobile banking application in partnership with the Korea Internet & Security Agency (KISA).

Hana Bank and KISA signed an MOU on Thursday at the bank's headquarters on Euljiro in Jung-gu, Seoul, to jointly prevent and respond to smishing and other telecommunications financial fraud. The agreement aims to proactively protect financial consumers against a sharp rise in smishing attacks.

As part of the MOU, Hana Bank used KISA's data and application programming interfaces to develop the real-time smishing detection service, which lets users instantly check whether a message is a smishing attempt directly within the Hana One Q mobile banking app.

When a suspicious message is spotted, users do not need to copy and paste the text separately — they simply tap the Hana One Q app through the smartphone's share function and the feature activates immediately. The service analyzes the risk level and notifies users in one of three categories: normal, Caution or malicious.

"What stands out is that combining the government's public security data infrastructure with Hana Bank's financial platform capabilities has strengthened users' access to financial security," a bank official said.

Hana Bank prevented voice phishing losses worth 281.8 billion won ($183 million) in 2024 and 218.5 billion won in 2025. This year, the bank plans to hire dedicated monitoring personnel for its abnormal financial transaction detection system and establish a new help desk with dedicated staff.

Hana Financial Group is also stepping up support for phishing fraud victims at the group level. Hana Savings Bank is implementing its own debt restructuring measures for voice phishing victims, including repayment deferrals.

"Through this agreement with KISA, we will fulfill our role as a financial safety net that fully protects financial consumers from the risks of financial fraud," Hana Bank President Lee Ho-seong said. "We will continue to do our utmost to prevent financial crimes affecting everyday lives through practical and proactive consumer protection efforts."