Over the past month, bank deposits fell sharply while overdraft accounts (credit line loans) increased. As real estate and stock prices have recently risen and investment fever has heated up, this is interpreted as households mobilizing every fund they can gather.
According to the financial sector on the 26th, demand deposits, including money market deposit accounts (MMDA), at the five major banks — KB Kookmin, Shinhan, Hana, Woori, and NH Nonghyup — totaled 649.5330 trillion won as of the 23rd, down 20.1908 trillion won from the end of September (669.7238 trillion won). That means an average of 877.9 billion won flowed out per day, and if this trend continues, about 27 trillion won will decline by the end of the month, marking the largest drop in 1 year and 3 months since July 2024 (-29.1395 trillion won).
Demand deposits are idle market funds that have yet to find a clear use or investment destination, and a significant portion of the deposits that flowed out recently is estimated to have gone into real estate or the stock market.
Household loans are seeing unsecured loans increase, led by overdraft accounts. As of the 23rd, the outstanding loan balance of unsecured loans at the five major banks was 104.5213 trillion won, up 713.4 billion won from the end of September (103.8079 trillion won). This contrasts with a 271.1 billion won decline last month. In particular, the balance of overdraft accounts jumped 530.9 billion won from 38.7893 trillion won at the end of last month to 39.3202 trillion won. It is the largest increase in 1 year and 2 months since August 2024 (570.4 billion won).
A bank official said, "Another bank official also said, 'There has been an increase in people urgently opening overdraft accounts to raise stock investment funds following the rise in KOSPI and to finance real estate such as down payments and interim payments.'"
The total outstanding loan balance of household loans was 765.9813 trillion won, up 1.8864 trillion won so far this month. Mortgage loan increased by 1.2183 trillion won. Among mortgage loans, jeonse deposit loans fell by 143.4 billion won. Jeonse loans also fell by 34.4 billion won in September. It is the first time in 1 year and 6 months since April last year that jeonse loans at the five major banks have declined for more than two months.