Banks struggle with coin-filled vaults in cashless Korea

As Korea becomes increasingly cashless, banks are grappling with a problem — too many coins piling up in their vaults.

The loose change, now rarely used, has become a growing logistical burden as lenders must store and eventually return it to the Bank of Korea (BOK).

Industry officials say that handling coins is more burdensome than banknotes because they are heavier and more challenging to process.

To cope with the growing volume of coin deposits, many bank branches accept coins only during designated hours.

Customers feed the change into coin-counting machines, which sort and package the coins before exchanging them for banknotes or depositing the equivalent amount into their accounts.

The packaged coins are then stored in branch vaults until they are transported to the BOK.

"Banknotes move in and out, but coins are the real problem.

Once they come in, they rarely leave.

They take much longer to sort and count and are much heavier," said an official at a commercial bank branch in Gyeonggi Province.

Branches in Seoul send collected cash to the BOK headquarters, while branches elsewhere ...