'Deposit Interest Rate Down 0.29%P, Mortgage Loans Only Down 0.02%P'... Loan-to-Deposit Gap Widens Despite Regulatory Pressure

[Image source=Yonhap News]

Despite pressure from financial authorities, the gap between loan interest rates and deposit interest rates at commercial banks has widened further.

According to the 'Weighted Average Interest Rates of Financial Institutions' statistics released by the Bank of Korea on the 31st, the weighted average interest rate on savings deposits (based on new contracts) at deposit banks last month was 3.54% per annum, down 0.29 percentage points from the previous month.

Pure savings deposits, mainly time deposits, fell by 0.34 percentage points, while market-type financial products decreased by 0.13 percentage points.

The loan interest rate dropped by 0.14 percentage points in one month to 5.32% per annum.

First, household loans fell by 0.25 percentage points to 5.22%. General unsecured loans decreased by 0.66 percentage points, but mortgage loans only declined by 0.02 percentage points.

The Bank of Korea explained, "Mortgage loans fell slightly due to a reduced decline in some benchmark interest rates (5-year bank bonds) and an increase in policy mortgage rates."

Corporate loans also decreased by 0.11 percentage points from the previous month to 5.36%, with large corporations down 0.06 percentage points and small and medium enterprises down 0.22 percentage points.

The interest rate spread between deposits and loans widened for the second consecutive month to 1.78 percentage points, following 1.63 percentage points in January. This was due to a larger decline in deposit interest rates (-0.29 percentage points) compared to loan interest rates (-0.14 percentage points), influenced by differences in maturity structures.

The proportion of fixed-rate household loans increased by 1.1 percentage points to 48.3%, driven by the expansion of mixed-type mortgage loans and fixed-rate jeonse (key money deposit) loans.

Non-bank financial institutions also saw deposit interest rates fall more sharply than loan interest rates.

Deposit interest rates declined in the order of savings banks (-1.06 percentage points), mutual finance (-0.49 percentage points), credit unions (-0.42 percentage points), and Saemaeul Geumgo (-0.32 percentage points). Loan interest rates fell at savings banks (-0.34 percentage points), Saemaeul Geumgo (-0.13 percentage points), and credit unions (-0.04 percentage points), while mutual finance rose by 0.01 percentage points.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.