Written by Lee Hwan-woo
Nearly 15 trillion won ($11.06 billion) was withdrawn from time and savings accounts at South Korea's five major commercial banks in the past month, data showed on Tuesday.
A term deposit is an account in which you invest a lump sum of money all at once for a set period of time and pay a predetermined interest rate over that period.
Additionally, interest-bearing accounts are regular savings accounts for investors who want to regularly accumulate small amounts of money until maturity.
Market participants analyzed that while Bitcoin and other digital coins have seen strong gains, investors have withdrawn their funds and invested mainly in stocks and cryptocurrencies as the benchmark KOSPI has been on a recovery trend. did.
According to data compiled by five banks: KB Kookmin, Shinhan, Hana, Woori, and NH Nonghyup, as of Sunday, the total balance of fixed deposit accounts was 873.37 trillion won. It decreased by 12.87 trillion won from the previous month.
The balance of fixed deposits was 31.37 trillion won, a decrease of 1.84 trillion won from the previous month.
The total decrease in the balance of fixed deposits and reserve savings reached 14.72 trillion won.
One market source said, “We believe that the cash withdrawn from banks was invested in the stock market and digital asset market,'' and the KOSPI index, which remained sluggish at the 2,400 point level in January, has increased to 2,700 points. He pointed out that prices are constantly rising to exceed the standard. This is the first time in almost two years for KOSPI.
Among virtual currencies, Bitcoin became the first country in South Korea to exceed 100 million won per coin in March.
This rise was driven by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's landmark decision in January to approve trading of Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) on traditional U.S. market exchanges.
The daily trading volume of Seoul's five crypto exchanges (Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, Korbit, and Gopax) exceeded 14 trillion won at one point in March.
Some market participants said investors were withdrawing money from banks because they felt deposit interest rates were inadequate.
While the Bank of Korea's base interest rate is 3.5% per year, the interest rates range from 3.45% to 3.55% per year.
