The volume of electronic registrations for bonds and certificates of deposit (CDs) issued through the Korea Securities Depository (KSD) topped 640 trillion won last year. In particular, a sharp increase in CD issuance, a bellwether of the short-term money market, drove the overall rise.
According to the "2025 bond and CD electronic registration issuance status" released by the depository on the 14th, last year's electronically registered bond and CD issuance totaled 643.2 trillion won, up 6.2% from 605.5 trillion won a year earlier. Of that, bond issuance rose 4.0% to 576.3 trillion won, while CD issuance jumped 29.9% year over year to 66.9 trillion won.
By type, financial debentures accounted for the largest share at 207.6 trillion won, or 32.3% of the total. Financial debentures refer to bonds issued by financial companies such as commercial banks, card firms, and leasing firms. They were followed by special financial bonds at 153.3 trillion won (23.9%), ordinary corporate bonds at 78.7 trillion won (12.3%), and general special bonds at 67.9 trillion won (10.4%).
Issuance of mezzanine securities, including equity-linked bonds, also increased. Last year's mezzanine securities issuance came to 10.8 trillion won, up 28.2% from a year earlier. Trends diverged by product, however. Convertible bonds (CBs) fell 5.3% to 5.5 trillion won, while exchangeable bonds (EBs) surged 136% with 4.8 trillion won issued, leading the overall increase. Bonds with warrants (BWs) declined 10.6% to 600 billion won.
The depository said, "These statistics cover bonds and CDs issued and managed via electronic registration," adding, "Bonds separately managed and published by the Ministry of Economy and Finance and the Bank of Korea—such as Treasury Bond, fiscal securities, monetary stabilization securities, and foreign exchange equalization fund bonds—were excluded from the analysis."