FSS begins inspection of Toss Bank after Japanese yen mistakenly traded at half price
Published: 11 Mar. 2026, 12:21
Updated: 11 Mar. 2026, 20:35
Audio report: written by reporters, read by AI
![Toss Bank's headquarters in Gangnam District, southern Seoul on Oct. 4, 2021. [NEWS1]](https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/data/photo/2026/03/11/909fdaa4-0d8a-4f4c-a5ee-2282c8a9eac7.jpg)
Toss Bank's headquarters in Gangnam District, southern Seoul on Oct. 4, 2021. [NEWS1]
The Financial Supervisory Service has begun an on-site inspection of Toss Bank after a glitch caused Japanese yen to be traded at roughly half price on the finance app.
The regulator is inspecting on Wednesday to determine the cause of the foreign exchange system error and the actual scale of losses, according to industry sources.
The problem occurred for about seven minutes at 7:29 p.m. Tuesday. During that period, customers exchanging won for Japanese yen were quoted about 472 won (32 cents) per 100 yen (63 cents). The normal rate at the time was about 934 won per 100 yen, meaning the currency was traded at roughly half its actual value.
Trades were made during that window as automatic buy orders were filled and users who logged in after receiving alerts about a sharp drop in the exchange rate bought yen. Toss Bank temporarily suspended yen exchange transactions immediately after recognizing the error and restored the service around 9 p.m., about two hours later.
Toss Bank is internally estimating its losses at around 10 billion won, according to industry sources.
Financial authorities and Toss Bank plan to determine the exact transaction volume and the cause of the error before discussing whether the trades should be canceled and how customers should be compensated. Whether the trades can be canceled, however, is likely to become a point of contention.
![The U.S. dollar, euro, yen and pound banknotes are seen in this illustration taken May 4. [REUTERS/YONHAP]](https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/data/photo/2026/03/11/74a1aff0-8b1e-476a-a95e-547d7dd9b020.jpg)
The U.S. dollar, euro, yen and pound banknotes are seen in this illustration taken May 4. [REUTERS/YONHAP]
Hana Bank had a similar incident in February 2025, in which the Vietnamese dong was mistakenly quoted at one-tenth of its normal rate. At the time, the transactions were canceled under a provision of the Electronic Financial Transactions Act.
In this case, however, some in the financial industry say a legal review is needed to determine whether the same provision can be applied because the price gap was about half, not one-tenth.
"One-tenth of the normal price is a clear error," a financial industry official said. "But when the exchange rate is off by about half, it is necessary to determine whether the trades can be canceled. Separate from whether the trades are canceled, a compensation plan for customers also needs to be put in place."
The occurrence follows a string of incidents caused by system input errors, which has the industry on alert.
Cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb mistakenly gave out 620,000 bitcoins, at the time worth $40 billion, after entering the wrong unit for an event prize in February. The incidents have renewed calls to strengthen financial IT system management and internal controls.
This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
BY JEONG JAE-HONG [[email protected]]
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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