This year, individual investors snapped up a range of assets including gold, silver and dollars. Analysts say they increased investments in what are considered "safe assets" amid growing uncertainty over the direction of domestic and overseas interest rates and a sharp rise in the exchange rate.
According to the financial sector on the 28th, the five major banks (KB Kookmin, Shinhan, Hana, Woori, NH Nonghyup) sold 674.974 billion won worth of gold bars from the start of the year through the 24th of this month.
This is the highest figure since statistics became available in 2020. It is more than four times the annual sales amount in 2024 (165.442 billion won).
Excluding NH Nonghyup, which does not provide sales weight records, the four major banks sold a total of 3,745 kilograms of gold bars, also a record high. It jumped 2.7 times in a year.
With silver prices surging, even silver bars were in short supply. The amount of silver bar sales this year (30.68 billion won) at the other four major banks excluding Hana Bank, which does not handle silver bars, was the highest in the banking sector's time series. That is 38 times last year's (799 million won).
As the won-dollar exchange rate hovered above the 1,400-won level throughout the year, money flowed into dollar deposits as well. As of the 24th of this month, individual dollar deposits at the five major banks stood at $12.73 billion. That is an increase of $917 million from the end of last year, setting a four-year high since the end of 2021 ($14.653 billion).
On the 24th, when the won-dollar exchange rate plunged more than 30 won alongside verbal intervention by the foreign exchange authorities, one Hana Bank branch in Seoul's Gangnam area reportedly ran out of $100 bills. Expecting that even if the government forcibly suppresses the dollar's price it will eventually rise again, individual investors rushed to buy dollars.