ETF Boom Drives Trust Assets to 1,516 Trillion Won Last Year

Securities Firms’ Trust Assets Grew by 20.7% Last Year

Driven by the popularity of exchange-traded funds (ETFs), trust assets held by securities firms saw double-digit growth last year.

According to the Financial Supervisory Service’s provisional “2025 Trust Business Operational Results” released on April 15, the total assets under management (AUM) of 60 trust companies reached 1,516.5 trillion won last year, up 10.0% from the previous year. Of this, the AUM of 46 concurrent trust companies stood at 1,059 trillion won, while the 14 real estate trust companies managed 457.5 trillion won.

By sector, banks held the largest share at 45.9% (696 trillion won), followed by real estate trust companies at 30.2% (457.5 trillion won), securities firms at 21.9% (332 trillion won), and insurance companies at 2.0% (31 trillion won).

The growth rate of trust assets soared to double digits last year. The increase was in the single digits in previous years: 4.9% in 2022, 7.1% in 2023, and 5.9% in 2024. Notably, securities firms posted a 20.7% growth rate. This was attributed to the rising popularity of ETFs and other easy-to-invest products, which drew investors to securities firms, leading to inflows into fixed-term deposit-type trusts and retirement pension trusts.

By type of trust asset, money trusts amounted to 726.5 trillion won last year, up 14.8% from the previous year. This was due to increases across all specific money trusts, including retirement pension trusts (375.7 trillion won), demand deposit-type trusts (102.4 trillion won), and fixed-term deposit-type trusts (96.6 trillion won). Property trusts rose 5.9% to 788.4 trillion won. While real estate collateral trusts (422.7 trillion won) and money bond trusts (224.3 trillion won) increased, securities trusts (7.2 trillion won) declined. Comprehensive property trusts saw only modest growth, rising from 800 billion won to 1.6 trillion won, largely due to low awareness.

Total trust fees reached 2.0915 trillion won last year, up 1.4% from the previous year. Fees from concurrent trust companies—including banks (1.2182 trillion won), securities firms (240.3 billion won), and insurance companies (43.4 billion won)—all increased. However, due to the slump in the construction market, fees from dedicated trust companies such as real estate trust firms (589.6 billion won) actually decreased. By asset category, money trust fees rose to 1.3877 trillion won, driven by higher retirement pension fees. Fees from money bond trusts also climbed to 65.9 billion won, but real estate trust fees declined to 637.9 billion won.

An official from the Financial Supervisory Service stated, "We will continue to support institutional improvements to ensure that trust companies can faithfully fulfill their role in systematically managing the nation’s assets."

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