Savings Banks Adjust Deposit Interest Rates in Preparation for Base Rate Cut

Last month, major companies began reorganizing their savings deposit products, reflecting demand for safe assets.

Spread to small and medium-sized businesses, this trend is seen as a preemptive preparation for the potential cut in the base rate.

According to the financial sector, savings banks are adjusting their deposit interest rates or introducing new deposit products around this month, in anticipation of interest rate fluctuations.

Kiwoom Yes Savings Bank recently introduced Yes Parking Account, which offers an annual interest rate of 3.0% without preferential interest rate conditions. The product applies interest rates from 0.5% for amounts under 30 million won to 3.0% for amounts over 100 million won, depending on the section.

Unlike other products that apply differential interest rates by amount bracket, Yes Parking Account helps with fund management by providing high interest rates on the entire balance even for high-amount deposits.

SBI Savings Bank has raised the interest rate on regular deposits by 0.3 percentage points, offering an annual interest rate of 3.9%. Additionally, a 9-month section was newly added to the term deposit product, reflecting the market trend of preferring short-term safe assets.

Aekyun Savings Bank has introduced the ‘Nannali Savings (100 days)’ product, which provides an annual interest rate of 12% for 100 days of savings. The product provides a basic interest rate of 2% per year, and 0.1%p of interest is accumulated once a day for each deposit made each day.

Welcome Savings Bank has opened an event to ‘up’ the deposit/withdrawal account balance this month. If you link your deposit/withdrawal account to Naver Pay, Kakao Pay, Payco, or Toss, and your balance this month increases by 1 million won or more compared to the previous month, you will receive a benefit.

Savings banks are expecting a ‘base rate cut’ that could occur by next month, and are adjusting their deposit rates in advance to better prepare for interest rate fluctuations.

A savings bank official explained, “Currently, some third-party companies are moving to adjust interest rates by 0.1%p each,” adding, “It is not noticeable, but they are adjusting their deposit interest rates in advance in anticipation of a base rate cut.”

The average interest rate on savings bank term deposits with a maturity of 12 months rose 0.01%p from a month ago to 3.66% per annum. However, if the base interest rate goes down, commercial banks will have no choice but to lower the interest rates on their deposit products, and savings banks will have to secure interest rate competitiveness.

A savings bank official said, “Recently, the loan assets of the business have fallen to the 90 trillion won level, but if the base interest rate goes down, the high-interest situation will ease and we will have to engage in active lending sales again. In order to prepare for that in advance, we have to protect our deposit assets as much as possible, so we have no choice but to raise the deposit interest rate.”