Fueled by growth in the retirement pension market, securities firms' trust assets under custody increased by nearly 60 trillion won last year. The assets under custody at hybrid trust companies, including banks and insurers, surpassed 1,000 trillion won, and related fees also rose.
In contrast, although real estate trust companies saw an increase in assets under custody, trust fees fell by more than 100 billion won due to the real estate downturn, highlighting a divergence across sectors.
According to the "2025 trust industry operating results (provisional)" released by the Financial Supervisory Service on the 15th, as of the end of last year, total assets under custody at all 60 trust companies stood at 1,516.5 trillion won, up 138.4 trillion won (10.0%) from a year earlier. By sector growth rate, securities firms (20.7%) were followed by insurers (11.1%), banks (7.4%), and real estate trust companies (7.1%).
Assets under custody refer to the net asset value remaining after trust companies sell fund certificates that are not redeemed. Trust fees are the product management fees paid annually to financial companies when investing in trust-type products.
Assets under custody at 46 hybrid trust companies (banks, securities, insurers) totaled 1,059 trillion won, up 107.9 trillion won (11.3%) from a year earlier. In particular, driven by inflows into time-deposit-type trusts and retirement pensions, securities firms' assets under custody increased by 56.9 trillion won to 332 trillion won. Banks and insurers also rose by 47.9 trillion won and 3.1 trillion won to 696 trillion won and 31 trillion won, respectively.
Assets under custody at 14 real estate trust companies reached 457.5 trillion won, up 30.5 trillion won over the same period. The main driver was a 24.6 trillion won increase in real estate collateral trusts due to the impact of distressed completion-guaranteed land trusts.
By trust property, property trusts accounted for 788.4 trillion won, or 52.0% of the total, followed by monetary trusts (726.5 trillion won, 47.9%) and comprehensive property trusts (1.6 trillion won, 0.1%).
By growth rate, monetary trusts rose 14.8%, far outpacing property trusts (5.9%). Inflows into retirement pensions (48 trillion won), time-deposit-type (25 trillion won), demand deposits (9.9 trillion won), and equity-linked trusts (3.8 trillion won) were cited as key factors.
For property trusts, real estate collateral trusts and pecuniary claims trusts increased by 35.5 trillion won (9.2%) and 4.2 trillion won (1.9%), respectively, but securities trusts decreased by 2.2 trillion won (23.4%).
Total trust fees were 2.0915 trillion won, up 28.6 billion won (1.4%) from a year earlier. Fees at hybrid trust companies rose 211.4 billion won (16.4%) to 1.5019 trillion won, while real estate trust fees fell 182.8 billion won (23.7%) to 589.6 billion won.
In detail, monetary trust fees increased 187.1 billion won (15.6%) to 1.3877 trillion won, while real estate trust fees decreased 176.2 billion won (21.6%) to 637.9 billion won. In particular, fees for managed land trusts continued to decline, from 541.3 billion won in 2023 to 321.4 billion won in 2024 and 197.9 billion won last year, due to the real estate downturn and rising construction costs.
The Financial Supervisory Service plans to continue monitoring potential risk factors at hybrid and specialized trust companies and strengthen risk management for trust companies. An FSS official said, "We will support multifaceted institutional improvements so that trust companies can faithfully fulfill their role of systematically managing the public's assets."