Last year, as the U.S. economy showed solid growth centered on the artificial intelligence (AI) industry, the balance of overseas stocks and bonds bought by institutional investors in Korea increased by more than $87.2 billion. This marked the third straight year of gains after 2023 and 2024.
According to "Trends in foreign-currency securities investment by major institutional investors in 2025," released by the Bank of Korea (BOK) on the 4th, the balance of foreign-currency securities investments—such as overseas stocks and bonds—held by Korea's major institutional investors at the end of last year (at market value) stood at $507.83 billion. That was an increase of $87.24 billion (20.7%) from the end of the previous year.
In 2022, the balance of foreign-currency securities investments was tallied at $365.29 billion, down $43.27 billion from a year earlier. It was the first decline since 2011, and the drop was the largest since the 2008 global financial crisis. However, it increased in 2023 (+6.2%) and 2024 (8.4%), and the uptrend continued last year.
On this, the Bank of Korea (BOK) said it "was due to gains in major countries' stock prices amid continued expectations for robust growth in the U.S. economy and the development of the AI industry, and as the U.S. Treasury yield fell with continued rate cuts by the Federal Reserve (Fed), both foreign stocks and bonds posted valuation gains and net investment increased."
By institution, the investment balances of asset managers (+$68.1 billion), insurers (+$9.43 billion), foreign exchange banks (+$5.91 billion), and securities firms (+$3.8 billion) all increased, with asset managers having a relatively larger investment scale.
By product, foreign stocks including those in the United States increased by $66.04 billion, and foreign bonds rose by $18.98 billion. Korean Paper—foreign-currency bonds issued overseas by domestic corporations—also increased by $2.22 billion.