December New COFIX 3.22%... Three Consecutive Months of Decline

The Cost of Funds Index (COFIX), which is used as the benchmark interest rate for variable-rate mortgage loans in the banking sector, has fallen for three consecutive months.

Yonhap News

The Korea Federation of Banks announced on the 15th that the COFIX based on new contracts in December last year was recorded at 3.22%, down 0.13 percentage points from the previous month (3.35%). This marks a decline for three consecutive months since October last year.

The COFIX based on outstanding balances fell by 0.06 percentage points to 3.47%, and the COFIX based on new outstanding balances decreased by 0.09 percentage points to 2.98%.

COFIX is the weighted average interest rate of funds raised by eight domestic banks, reflecting increases or decreases in interest rates of deposit products such as savings and time deposits, and bank bonds actually handled by banks.

In particular, the COFIX based on new contracts is calculated based on funds newly raised during the relevant month, which allows it to relatively quickly reflect changes in market interest rates. As COFIX rises, the mortgage loan rates of major commercial banks are also expected to be adjusted.

The short-term COFIX, based on the announced interest rates over the past four weeks, ranged from 3.30% to 3.36%. The short-term COFIX is calculated based on short-term funds with a contract maturity of three months.

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