Disruption follows Nov. 9 overhaul
Financial industry sources said on Nov. 10 that errors had affected the pension system revamped a day earlier. Customers using the retirement pension menu in the bank's WON Banking app could not complete key transactions. Services outside that system continued to work.
The upgrade was intended to bring pension balances and projected payouts together in one place, while allowing customers to view real-time exchange-traded fund (ETF) prices and trade the funds the same day. The failures also affected new services: a streamlined online application for individual retirement pensions (IRP) and online enrollment in defined benefit (DB) and defined contribution (DC) plans.
Woori Bank attributed the trouble to its software update, saying, "Some issues requiring remediation arose during the program source update." It added, "The system is currently operating normally, and we are continuously monitoring operations to provide stable service."
The disruption prevented some customers from buying during a stock market rebound. The KOSPI rose for the first time in four sessions and at one point traded 5.6% above its previous close. A customer who had tried to purchase products through a pension account shared an app screenshot on social media showing an error and the notice, "Service is delayed due to increased transaction volume."
Referring to the rebound, the customer said, "I can't believe I can't log in on a day like this," and added, "It looks like they didn't properly test the new system."
Branch staff also struggled to explain the failure. Employees had not received adequate response instructions, and the app's generic error screen offered no explanation of the cause. One employee said, "They couldn't even get the basic main menu working. If I don't want to use it as an employee, why would customers want to?"
Pension push in a growing market
The overhaul was part of Woori's effort to strengthen a business in which it trails South Korea's other three major commercial banks. Financial Supervisory Service figures put Woori's pension reserves at 33.02 trillion won at the end of September, a decline of 1 trillion won from the end of June.
Shinhan held 57.22 trillion won, followed by KB Kookmin with 52.22 trillion won and Hana with 52.16 trillion won, leaving Woori about 20 trillion won behind its peers. Woori's advantage over fifth-ranked Industrial Bank of Korea, whose reserves totaled 32.99 trillion won, was just 34.5 billion won.
Woori had recently been highlighting its investment performance. The Asia Business Daily reported on Nov. 4 that the bank was promoting an 18.4% third-quarter 2026 return on non-principal-guaranteed DC plans. That ranked first among the 10 pension providers with the largest reserves across banking, securities and insurance.
The broader retirement pension market reached 542.12 trillion won at the end of the third quarter of 2026, an increase of 45.32 trillion won, or 9.1%, from the end of 2025. Newsworks reported the figures from the Financial Supervisory Service's pension comparison disclosure released on the 27th. Banks held about 275 trillion won, but their market share declined 1.6 percentage points to 50.8%; securities firms' share rose to 29.6%.
Transfers between providers have also increased. According to Financial Supervisory Service figures reported by Seoul Economic Daily, the in-kind retirement plan transfer service handled 15.9 trillion won in about 250,000 transactions between its launch in late October 2024 and the end of June 2026. Transfers in the first half of 2026 totaled 6.9 trillion won, more than twice the amount in the same period a year earlier.
Separate outage affected branch operations
Sources said Woori had also recently experienced an external internet outage that brought payroll transfers, overseas remittances and invoice processing at branches to a halt. Employee training uses the external internet under the bank's network separation arrangements. A surge in simultaneous users prevented staff with urgent business from gaining access.
An official at Woori Financial Group said, "I don't know how many people were taking the courses, but shouldn't the bank at least provide an environment where relationship managers can do business?"
The disruptions have raised questions about IT management and oversight despite increases in staffing and spending. Korea Internet & Security Agency data show that Woori's IT workforce rose from 1,011.3 in 2022 to 1,144 last year, a 13.1% increase. Over the same period, its IT budget grew 1.9%, from 394.1 billion won to 401.7 billion won.
Government prepares pension legislation
Woori was among nine major providers at the "2026 retirement pension providers meeting," held in Seoul on Nov. 6 by the Ministry of Employment and Labor and the Financial Supervisory Service.
ChosunBiz reported that the government plans to require all establishments to fund retirement benefits off their balance sheets by 2030 and to activate fund-type retirement pensions managed by professional trustee corporations. The labor ministry plans to introduce legislation amending the Act on the Guarantee of Employees' Retirement Benefits in November 2026.
