Foreign investors sold a net KRW5.3930 trillion of listed stocks but bought a net KRW7.3830 trillion of listed bonds in April 2020. The cumulative holdings of listed stocks came to KRW505.0 trillion in total, 31.5% of total market capitalization. Meanwhile, the bond holdings totaled KRW140.5 trillion, representing 7.3% of total listed bonds.

As of end of 2019, fourteen domestic securities companies were operating in 14 countries through 52 subsidiaries and 15 offices. Most of their overseas businesses were concentrated in Asia with 39 subsidiaries and 14 offices.

The amount of asset-backed securities (ABS) issued between January and March, 2020, came to KRW22.7 trillion in total, up KRW2.6 trillion or 12.9% from three months earlier and also up KRW12.9 trillion or 131.9% from the same period a year ago. The growth was mostly attributable to a greater issuance of mortgage-backed securities (MBS) by the Korea Housing Finance Corporation (KHFC). Compared to a year ago, the KHFC’s MBS issuance increased by KRW13.1 trillion. Meanwhile, financial companies cut their issuance by KRW1 trillion while non-financial peers’ issuance grew KRW0.8 trillion.

At the end of 2019, there were 107 credit-specialized financial companies (CSFCs) excluding credit card companies, and their aggregate assets increased KRW18.2 trillion or 12.7% to KRW161.7 trillion compared to the same period a year earlier. Inherent business assets grew KRW6.2 trillion to KRW62.2 trillion as assets increased in facility leasing and installment financing. Loan assets also expanded from KRW68.9 trillion to KRW76.7 trillion mainly due to the growth in business loans.

Corporate financing through debt and equity issues in March 2020 came to KRW16.1155 trillion in total, down KRW1.0213 trillion from a month earlier. Meanwhile, corporate financing through issuance of commercial paper (CP) and short-term electronic bond in March totaled KRW133.2178 trillion, up KRW6.3969 trillion from the same period a month ago.

The risk-based capital ratios (actual solvency capital divided by the minimum solvency capital required) of domestic insurance companies at the end of December 2019 stood at 269.5%, down 17.4%p from 286.9% three months earlier.

Three life insurance and seven nonlife insurance companies have operated total 34 overseas businesses in 11 countries as of year-end 2019. Most of the overseas businesses were concentrated on the nonlife insurance sector in Asia.

The delinquency rate of domestic banks’ won-denominated (WD) loans—classified as the percentage of loans with principal of interest payment past due by at least one month—as of end-February 2020 stood at 0.43%, up 0.02%p from a month ago and down 0.09%p from a year ago. In February, the amount of newly delinquent loans exceeded that of resolved loans, which contributed to the month-on-month increase in the delinquency rate.

Foreign investors sold a net KRW13.4500 trillion of listed stocks but bought a net KRW3.5810 trillion of listed bonds in March 2020. The cumulative holdings of listed stocks came to KRW468.7 trillion in total, 32.4% of total market capitalization. Meanwhile, the bond holdings totaled KRW133.3 trillion, representing 7.0% of total listed bonds.

Foreign banks operated 36 branches in Korea at the end of 2019, and the aggregate assets of the branches increased KRW32.4 trillion or 11.8 % to KRW305.2 trillion from the previous year. In particular, the foreign bank branches’ derivative assets soared KRW14.3 trillion. Also, securities and cash and deposits increased KRW7.7 trillion and KRW0.4 trillion, respectively, between 2018 and 2019.

The number of financial holding companies (FHCs) was ten as of year end 2019. Compared to the same period a year ago, the number of subsidiary units increased 34 to 243 and that of offices also increased from 7,204 to 8,622. Accordingly, the number of employees grew by 27.2 % to 154,127 from a year earlier.

Corporate financing through debt and equity issues in February 2020 came to KRW17.1368 trillion in total, up KRW5.9312 trillion from a month earlier. Furthermore, corporate financing through issuance of commercial paper (CP) and short-term electronic bond in February totaled KRW126.8209 trillion, up KRW5.2323 trillion from the same period a month ago.

As of year end 2019, the number of credit cards issued by credit card companies (CCCs) and banks came to KRW110.97 million, 5.6% greater than the same period a year earlier. In addition, dormant credit cards cards1 increased 21.1% from 8.71 million to 10.55 million at the end of 2019. When it came to check (debit) cards, the cumulative number of issued cards came to 110.94 million in total, 0.6% less than a year ago.

Domestic banks were operating in 39 countries through 57 subsidiaries, 81 branches and 57 offices at the end of 2019. Most of the overseas operations were concentrated in Asia, accounting for 69.2% of the total, followed by the Americas (13.8%), Europe (12.8%) and other regions including Oceania and Africa (4.1%).

Assets under management (AUM) of 14 real estate trust companies totaled KRW230.6 trillion at the end of 2019, up KRW23.8 trillion or 11.5% from KRW206.8 trillion a year ago. When it came to land trusts, the AUM increased from KRW64.9 trillion to KRW70.8 trillion. In particular, the AUM growth resulted from administration-type land trust growing by KRW5.9 trillion from the same period a year ago. Collateral trusts also expanded KRW19.2 trillion or 15.4% to KRW144.2 trillion. By contrast, brokerage trusts decreased KRW1.2 trillion or 15.0% to KRW6.8 trillion as well as disposition trusts fell KRW0.1 trillion or 1.6% to KRW6.1 trillion during the period.