Ask five foreign residents in Korea what "Toss" is, and you'll get three different answers. One means the app on their phone. Another means the bank account they opened. A third saw the name on a checkout screen and assumed it's all the same company. All three are half right, and mixing them up costs you time, especially if you're still waiting on your Alien Registration Card (ARC, 외국인등록증).
Toss is actually three separate, separately regulated businesses. Here's what each one is, what a foreign resident can do with it, and where the real walls are.
Three different things called "Toss"
| What it is | Who regulates it | Deposit protected? | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Toss (the app) | Consumer super-app: transfers, budgeting, linked-account view, Toss Card, Toss Certificate | Not a licensed financial institution itself; it's the entry point to services that are | No |
| Toss Bank (토스뱅크) | A licensed internet-only bank | Financial Services Commission (FSC), banking license issued June 9, 2021 | Yes, under KDIC |
| Toss Payments (토스페이먼츠) | A payment-gateway and payment-escrow business that merchants use to accept payments | FSC, registered August 3, 2020 | Not applicable, it's not a deposit product |
The FSC approved Toss Bank's full banking license on June 9, 2021, making it Korea's third internet-only bank, about four years after Kakao Bank's 2017 launch. Toss Payments Inc. holds a separate FSC registration as an electronic financial business operator, covering both a payment-gateway license and a payment-escrow license, dated August 3, 2020.
As a foreign resident, you'll deal with Toss Payments the least of the three. Most people only see its name on a receipt or a checkout page when an online store uses it to process a card or transfer payment. There's no consumer account to sign up for, so you won't create one.
The Toss app: what it does, and the wall that stops most new arrivals
The Toss app is where most people start. It handles peer-to-peer transfers, budgeting and spending tracking, a linked view of accounts you hold elsewhere, the Toss Card, the Toss Certificate (본인인증 credential), and the sign-up flow for Toss Bank and Toss Securities accounts.
Getting in the door is the first wall. Signing up for or logging into the Toss app requires identity verification through a mobile phone registered in your own name. Without that verification step, you cannot sign up or log in at all, regardless of what other documents you have.
Once you're in, a second and separate requirement applies: the customer identification duty (고객확인제도) under the Act on Reporting and Use of Specific Financial Transaction Information. This is an ongoing check, not a one-time sign-up gate. For foreign users, Toss's own support documentation accepts three ID types for this check: an Alien Registration Card (ARC, 외국인등록증), a permanent residency card (영주증), or a domestic residence report card (국내거소신고증) for overseas Koreans.
If you can't pass this check, you can't complete transactions through the Toss app itself. Toss's own documentation notes that this is separate from your underlying bank accounts: if you've already linked a Korean bank account to Toss, that account stays usable through the bank's own app, on its own terms. You just lose the convenience of managing it inside Toss.
Toss Bank: a real bank, with a hard no on one product
Toss Bank is a real bank, not a feature inside the app. It holds its own FSC banking license, carries the same KDIC deposit protection as any other Korean bank, and offers its own account products, cards, and loans.
Deposit protection covers principal and interest up to ₩100,000,000 per depositor per institution, effective September 1, 2025. Before that date, the limit was ₩50,000,000. This limit applies across all of Korea's banks, not just Toss Bank, and it's set by KDIC, not by Toss.
One product is explicitly off-limits. Toss's own support page states that its foreign-currency account can only be opened by Korean-national customers. Foreign nationals and overseas Koreans cannot open one, according to Toss's own documentation. If you need to hold or send foreign currency, look at Korea's general foreign-currency account options instead.
Rather than assembling documents in advance, start the account-opening flow inside the app. It asks for what it needs at each step, and that in-app flow is the most current answer available, more current than any fixed list a guide could publish.
One general Korean banking rule worth knowing before you open any account, Toss Bank or otherwise: a newly opened account without documented proof of its purpose defaults to lower daily limits, called a limited-transaction account (한도제한계좌). Since May 2, 2024, that default limit is ₩1,000,000 per day for ATM, transfer, and internet banking, and ₩3,000,000 at a bank counter. This rule applies to new accounts generally. It isn't specific to foreign residents.
Toss Securities: closed to foreign residents
Toss's own support page states plainly that Toss Securities does not open accounts for foreign nationals, overseas Koreans (재외국민), or corporations. No exception is listed. If you want to invest in Korean markets, see the brokerage account guide for foreign residents for the options that are actually open to you.
Before your ARC: the two real walls
Two things actually block a foreign resident before an ARC arrives, and both are documented.
The Toss app itself requires a Korean phone in your own name. It's not a soft preference; it's the sign-up and login gate.
Korean financial real-name law uses your passport until your ARC exists. Under Article 3 of the enforcement decree of the Act on Real Name Financial Transactions and Confidentiality, a foreign national's legal "real name" for financial-transaction purposes is the name and registration number on their alien registration record. If a foreigner has not yet been issued an ARC, the name and number on their passport or another ID document is used in its place. Once your ARC is issued, your real name for financial purposes switches to that card.
What this means in practice: identity verification for foreign residents runs on a two-stage basis, passport first, then ARC. It does not mean every service will let you complete every step with a passport alone. Where a service specifically requires a Korean phone in your own name, as the Toss app does, that requirement stands regardless of which document establishes your real name.
After your ARC: what changes
Once you have your ARC, the identity checks that were closed to you open up. Toss's documented accepted ID types for the customer identification duty (ARC, permanent residency card, or domestic residence report card) become usable. A separate video-call identity verification path that Toss offers also accepts the same three ID types for foreign users.
Getting a postpaid Korean phone plan in your own name is a separate step from getting your ARC, and both matter here. See the identity verification guide for how the phone-record name and your ARC name need to match, and the SIM card guide for getting a plan set up.
FAQ
Common questions about using Toss, Toss Bank, and Toss Payments as a foreign resident in Korea.