In March, corporations' fundraising shifted from medium- to long-term bonds such as corporate bonds to stocks and short-term funds.
According to the "Direct financing performance of corporations in March 2026" released by the Financial Supervisory Service on the 28th, the issuance of commercial paper (CP) and short-term bonds was 200.4738 trillion won, up 25.6% from the previous month.
By institutional sector, CP issuance was 46.7698 trillion won, up 23.5%, and short-term bonds were 153.7040 trillion won, up 26.3%; issuance based on accounts receivable, corporate bonds, time deposits, and the like accounted for 50.4%, and for short-term bonds, issuance backed by project financing (PF) loan receivables jumped 38.1%, driving the increase.
Corporate bonds came to 19.5430 trillion won, up 634.8 billion won (3.4%) from a year earlier, but general corporate bonds were 4.7810 trillion won, down 332.7 billion won (6.5%) from the previous month.
Of general bond issuance, 85.6% was for refinancing, and working capital accounted for 14.4%. Of the issues, 98.5% were rated A or higher, centering on high-quality paper, and maturities of 2–5 years, mid-term notes, accounted for 97.5%.
Financial debentures were 13.4424 trillion won, rising only 0.6%, but asset-backed securities (ABS) surged to 1.3196 trillion won, up 208.7% from the previous month. In particular, P-CBOs with credit enhancement by the Korea Credit Guarantee Fund (KODIT) increased 3,166.3% to 671.6 billion won, and issuance by financial companies also jumped 1,269.5% to 933.1 billion won.
As of the end of March, the total balance of corporate bonds was 747.3152 trillion won, down 0.2% from the previous month. For general corporate bonds, there was a net redemption of 449.0 billion won, continuing the net redemption trend from the previous month.
Fundraising through stock issuance expanded. In March, public offerings totaled 440.2 billion won, up 28.9% from the previous month. Initial public offerings (IPOs) were nine cases totaling 210.4 billion won; the number increased but the amount decreased, while paid-in capital increases were seven cases totaling 229.8 billion won, with the issuance amount up 353.3% from the previous month.