KakaoBank Brand Guidelines: A 2017 App-Only Launch, Kakao Friends Cards & a 2021 Kospi Listing

Founded by Kakao, opened in July 2017.

KakaoBank was created by Kakao, the company behind the KakaoTalk messenger. Korean Wikipedia dates the company to 22 January 2016, when it was set up as 한국카카오은행 (Kakao Bank of Korea Corp.), and English Wikipedia describes it as a collaboration between Kakao and Korea Investment Holdings. It opened for business on 27 July 2017, Korea’s second internet-only bank after K Bank, according to Korean Wikipedia.

The start was fast. English Wikipedia, citing Ernst & Young, says the bank signed up more than 300,000 customers in its first 24 hours and two million within a fortnight, using identity checks such as a selfie. The Korea Herald reported in July 2019 that the bank, “launched in July, 2017,” had passed 10 million customers in under two years, and that most of its users were in their twenties and thirties; at the time it and K Bank were the country’s only internet banks. Korean Wikipedia records two rounds of new shares for existing shareholders in 2017 and 2018, and says Kakao became the largest shareholder on 22 November 2019, when it bought part of Korea Investment Financial Holdings’ stake.

On 1 June 2020 the company took its present name, KakaoBank Corp. (주식회사 카카오뱅크), replacing the original Korean and English names, Korean Wikipedia says. It is based in Pangyo, in Seongnam’s Bundang district south of Seoul, and listed its shares on the Kospi in 2021, The Korea Herald noted in June 2026; it is part of the Kospi 200 index, according to Korean Wikipedia. The Korea Times and The Korea Herald both describe it as Korea’s largest internet-only bank.

One app, no branches.

KakaoBank has no branch network; everything happens in its app. Its English website promises account opening “without certificates or OTP,” transfers “only a few taps away” and an interface it calls “Concise and Elegant,” suited to small screens, under the heading “Mobile First, One App.” The site’s tagline reads: “Already everyone’s bank. Now, KakaoBank.” Korean Wikipedia gives a Korean slogan, 같지만 다른 은행, roughly “the same, but a different bank.”

Its products lean on the social side of its parent. The Group Account lets customers invite KakaoTalk friends to share a balance and its history, and the 26-Week Installment Savings account turns saving into a weekly challenge, the website says. It also offers time deposits, overdraft and credit loans, loans for business owners, housing-deposit loans and overseas remittance through Western Union.

Abroad, the bank has moved from investor to builder. In 2023 it took a 10 percent stake in Superbank, an Indonesian digital bank backed by Grab, and has advised it on products and on user-interface design, The Korea Times reported in December 2025. In January 2026 it signed a joint-venture agreement in Bangkok with SCB X to set up a virtual bank in Thailand, starting with 10 percent and planning to rise to 24.5 percent, with WeBank Technology Services as a technology partner; KakaoBank is to lead the app and its interface, The Korea Times reported. In June 2026 The Korea Herald reported that the venture, called Bank X, held a virtual-banking licence from mid-2025 and was expected to launch in late 2026 or early 2027, so it had not opened at the time of writing.

At home, in October 2026 it launched a full set of services for foreign residents, with AI translation of app screens and chat in English, Chinese and Vietnamese, The Korea Times reported; a bank official put its customer base at 28 million. Residents aged 19 or older can open the Foreign Resident Account through a chatbot in about five minutes, with public MyData services filling in name, nationality and address, and remittances run through the fintech firm Hanpass. The same report noted that Toss Bank had offered remote account opening to foreign residents since 2022.

Korean banks and their marks.

South Korean banks tend to present themselves with short names and simple symbols. Many trade under initials or a single word, and they usually show the Hangul name and the Latin name side by side, so that the same mark works on a branch sign in Seoul, an overseas office and a phone screen. Bright, clean colours are common across the sector, from yellows and warm tones to teals, blues and greens, set against plenty of white space.

Several banks have built their identities beyond a logo. KB Financial Group publishes its own typeface family and a cast of mascots, the Star Friends, which appear in its advertising; Hana Financial Group has its own typeface too, and offers it free to the public. Character mascots, house fonts and short slogans give these brands a friendly face that carries across advertising, apps and branches.

Much of the customer’s contact now happens on a phone. Bank websites and apps tend to be minimal and app-first, with pages organised around deposits and savings, loans, mobile banking, overseas transfers and digital wallets, and many services that once needed a branch visit are offered online. Banks also use their apps for things beyond banking, such as event ticketing or tie-ins with sports clubs.

Sport and publishing round out the picture. Korean banks sponsor athletes, teams and running and golf events, and some produce branded dramas and web series for online audiences. Their annual reports and sustainability reports are published in Korean and English and set out each group’s structure, history and identity, which makes them a useful starting point for anyone studying how these brands are built.

Characters on the card, yellow in the hand.

KakaoBank’s look borrows from the wider Kakao family. Its debit cards come with the Kakao Friends characters — Korean Wikipedia lists Muzi, Ryan, Apeach, Choonsik and Con — or in plain white, yellow or black without a character, and the bank’s own site invites customers to choose “from Friends designs to a stylish black color.” Korean Wikipedia records a limited edition with four more Friends characters, issued from August 2018 to August 2019, and a prepaid mini card for children and teenagers launched in October 2020 with the Niniz characters on the front.

The app itself is the brand’s main surface, and the bank presents design as part of what it sells abroad: in Indonesia and Thailand its role covers product planning, the mobile app and user-experience design, according to The Korea Times. The KakaoTalk link also runs through the product, from Group Accounts shared with chat friends to the Friends cards.

For a design guide, KakaoBank shows how a bank with no branches can build recognition from an app, a character family and a single strong colour. Compare Toss Bank, another Korean internet-only lender, and KB Kookmin Bank. For this guide we use a warm yellow, a soft black and a cocoa brown with a sans, an unofficial interpretation; no product or logo is reproduced.

Keep KakaoBank’s identity on hand — save it to a board in the Made Good inspiration library.