The interest rate for the parking account, a representative high-interest product of the banking sector, has fallen to the 2% range. Financial consumers are moving idle funds to stock markets or savings and deposit products from mutual finance sectors to find higher interest rates. The parking account is a free deposit product that offers high interest for a short period just like parking a car.
According to the financial sector on the 23rd, Woori Bank recently reduced the interest rate for its parking account product, MoneyClip, by 0.25 percentage points. The interest for the MoneyClip wallet decreased from 1.50% to 1.25%, the interest for the MoneyClip vault, which is deposited for between 7 and 31 days, fell from 2.00% to 1.75%, and the interest for the MoneyClip vault deposited for more than 31 days decreased from 2.25% to 2.00%.
IBK Industrial Bank also reduced the base interest rate for its parking account, 'MoneyBox,' by 0.5 percentage points. MoneyBox offered a maximum annual interest rate of 3% when it was launched last year, but now it provides an interest rate of 1.5%, including preferential rates. KakaoBank and Kbank also lowered the interest rates for their 'SafeBox' and 'PlusBox' by 0.2 percentage points and 0.1 percentage points, respectively.
Savings banks, which used to offer higher interest rates than commercial banks, are also lowering their parking account rates. OK Savings Bank has lowered the interest rate for its 'OK Parking Flex Account' from 3% to 2.8%. SBI Savings Bank also reduced the interest rate for its 'Cider Deposit Account' from 2.5% to 2.25%. It has become difficult to find parking accounts with interest rates of 3% or more even at savings banks.
Financial consumers are utilizing parking accounts merely for fund management or to store idle funds. Financial companies can attract short-term funds through parking accounts. However, after the Bank of Korea lowered the base rate to 2.75% last month, the banking sector has lowered deposit rates, leading to the disappearance of high-interest parking accounts with rates of 3%.
Analysis suggests that a 'MoneyMove' is accelerating, in which idle funds deposited in parking accounts are being moved to products that offer relatively high interest rates. Nearly 400,000 participants signed up for a pre-reservation event ahead of the launch of the 'Monimo KB Daily Interest Account', a partnership product between KB Kookmin Bank and Samsung Financial Networks. This product offers the highest interest rate of 4% on deposits up to 2 million won over a year after enrollment. When the product is officially released next month, the limit of 220,000 accounts is expected to be quickly exhausted.
Money is also flowing into the stock market. According to the Korea Financial Investment Association, the total investor deposits stood at 56.529 trillion won as of the 28th of last month, an increase of over 1 trillion won compared to a week earlier (54.9588 trillion won). The balance of Comprehensive Asset Management Accounts (CMA) also increased by about 2 trillion won, from 85.4943 trillion won to 87.4806 trillion won during the same period. Deposits and CMA balances are classified as idle funds before investing in stocks. The balance of mutual finance deposits that offer higher interest rates than banks was 905.410 trillion won as of December of last year, an increase of about 31 trillion won compared to a year ago.
A financial sector official noted, "Last year, funds that could not find investment opportunities due to the sluggish real estate market flocked to parking accounts, and this year, property prices in the metropolitan area are rising while interest rates are declining, causing idle funds in parking accounts to flow out again."