Resident Foreign Currency Deposits Exceed 100 Billion Dollars... Dollar and Yen Deposits Increase

On the 14th, an employee is organizing US dollars and Japanese yen at the Hana Bank Counterfeit Response Center in Jung-gu, Seoul. Photo by Jinhyung Kang aymsdream@

Last month, resident foreign currency deposits exceeded $100 billion again for the first time in six months. While yen deposits continued to increase due to the weak yen, dollar deposits also saw a significant rise.

According to the "Resident Foreign Currency Deposit Trends" released by the Bank of Korea on the 25th, as of the end of last month, the balance of resident foreign currency deposits at foreign exchange banks stood at $105 billion, an increase of $5.17 billion compared to the end of the previous month.

Resident foreign currency deposits refer to foreign currency deposits held domestically by nationals, domestic companies, foreigners residing in Korea for more than six months, and foreign companies operating in Korea.

The balance of foreign currency deposits had decreased for four consecutive months since January ($109.25 billion), but turned to an increasing trend in May and has risen for three consecutive months, surpassing $100 billion again after six months.

Dollar deposits increased significantly by $4.42 billion, and yen deposits also rose by $830 million.

The Bank of Korea explained, "Dollar and yen deposits increased due to factors such as overseas funding by some companies and securities firms' investor deposits."

It is analyzed that interest in dollar deposits has increased as the dollar strengthened recently amid expectations of prolonged tightening by the U.S. Federal Reserve (Fed).

In the case of yen deposits, the recent depreciation of the yen has led to an increase for three consecutive months. In June, deposits rose by $1.23 billion, marking the largest monthly increase on record.

On the other hand, euro deposits decreased by $70 million compared to the previous month. The Bank of Korea explained, "This slight decrease was due to corporate spot foreign exchange sales and payments for import settlements."

By sector, corporate deposit balances increased by $4.5 billion to $89.68 billion, and individual deposit balances rose by $670 million to $15.32 billion.

Domestic banks (at $94.33 billion) saw an increase of $6.14 billion, while foreign bank branches (at $10.67 billion) decreased by $970 million.

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