In the corporate funding market in April, the share of short-term borrowing, such as commercial paper (CP) and short-term bonds, expanded.
According to the "Direct financing by corporations in April 2026," released by the Financial Supervisory Service on the 2nd, CP and short-term bond issuance totaled 226.6038 trillion won, up 13% from the previous month. CP increased by 9.5706 trillion won (20.5%), and short-term bonds rose by 16.5594 trillion won (10.8%).
By contrast, funding through stocks fell by 26.6 billion won (6%). Although paid-in capital increases rose by 26.1 billion won (11.4%), initial public offerings (IPO) declined by 52.7 billion won (25%).
Corporate bond funding increased by 2.6591 trillion won (13.6%), but that was due to a 3.2319 trillion won (24%) increase in financial bonds. Financial bonds are issued by financial holding companies and banks, and in April, bank bonds surged by 2.9694 trillion won (88.4%) from the previous month, leading the corporate bond market.
General corporate bonds, on the other hand, fell 12.7%. Issuance for refinancing purposes was the largest at 3.282 trillion won (78.6%), and by credit rating, high-quality issues rated AA or above amounted to 3.015 trillion won, accounting for 79.9%.
Asset-backed commercial paper (ABS) rose by 32.4 billion won (2.6%) from the previous month to 1.3538 trillion won. While ABS by institutions such as the Korea Credit Guarantee Fund (KODIT) for funding small and midsize businesses fell by more than 50%, ABS issuance by general corporations increased by 125%.