“Last year, I used to invest in stocks with leftover money, but now I want to be called stable, so I put it in savings bank savings accounts.
Park, a 20-year-old office worker who said that it has been a little over two years since he started working, recently signed up for two savings banks, term savings and time savings accounts, and is saving 500,000 won each month. Park said, “I think the 50 million won limit for depositor protection is sufficient, so I plan to use savings banks with good interest rates as much as possible within the limit.”
It is noteworthy that savings bank deposits and savings account interest rates are rising at a rapid pace. As a special sale product, savings products with a maximum of 7% per annum appeared, and the interest rate on time deposits rose to the late 2% range per annum. Savings banks are expected to reflect the increase in the base rate of the Bank of Korea Monetary Policy Committee in their deposit rates soon, so time deposit products with an annual rate of 3% are also expected to appear.
Sangsang In Plus Savings Bank launched the ‘Keuk Kuk 777 fixed deposit’, which provides an interest rate of 7% per annum, on the 100th day of the launch of the application (app) ‘Kuk Kuk’ this year. An event is being held every day until the 31st at 10 a.m. to give the 777 first-come-first-served customers a chance to sign up. It is a product with a maturity of 7 months, the maximum monthly payment is KRW 200,000, and interest is provided as a lump-sum payment at maturity.
Woori Financial Savings Bank is selling ‘With Term Savings’, which gives up to 5% interest rate to commemorate the complete privatization of Woori Financial Group. A 2.9% point preferential rate is provided to customers who sign up for the Woori Won Savings Bank mobile app and complete marketing agreements. The maximum monthly payment is Rs.
To commemorate the launch of the app ‘GO BANK’, Korea Savings Bank is also selling ‘Go Bank Term Deposit’, a special product that provides a 5% interest rate. The subscription period is 12 months, and you can pay up to 200,000 won per month. It is sold until the end of next month and may end early if the limit is exhausted.
An official from a savings bank said, “In order to prevent customer churn, savings banks are competitively offering high-interest-rate special products.
Term deposit interest rates also entered the high 2% range per annum. Sangsangin Savings Bank and Sangsangin Plus Savings Bank are selling time deposits with an interest rate of 2.7% each. Both products can be signed up for non-face-to-face time deposits starting at KRW 100,000 or more per person, and can be signed up through the Sangsangin Digital Bank ‘Bang Bang Bang’ and ‘Kukk’ apps.
KB Savings Bank’s ‘Term Deposit’ and ‘KB e-plus Time Deposit’ offer the highest interest rate at 2.7% per annum.
Savings banks are expected to actively raise interest rates on deposits and savings accounts in the future. From April this year, when the loan-to-deposit ratio easing policy ends, savings banks must also strictly adhere to the loan-to-deposit ratio to secure deposits. The loan-to-deposit ratio of savings banks has been limited to 100% since last year, so loans can only be operated as much as the amount of deposits.
The authorities decided not to impose sanctions on savings banks that violate the loan-to-deposit ratio by less than 10 percentage points until the end of March.
As the Monetary Policy Committee raises the base rate one after another, the savings bank deposit rate is expected to rise even more. Even after the base rate was raised by 0.25 percentage points in November of last year, the rate of increase in deposit interest rates at savings banks was only 0.05 percentage points. When the base interest rate rose another 0.25 percentage point on the 14th, industry insiders predicted that savings banks are highly likely to raise interest rates competitively.
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