The top 1 percent was found to hold 283 trillion won, accounting for 45.5 percent of all bank account savings in the country. (image: Korea Bizwire)
SEOUL, Oct. 14 (Korea Bizwire) — More than half of all commercial bank account savings are stored in the accounts of the top 1 percent.
According to a report the Financial Supervisory Service submitted to Rep. Lee Tae-kyu, commercial bank account savings in South Korea had reached 623 trillion won (US$525 billion) as of July of this year.
Among them, the top 1 percent was found to hold 283 trillion won, accounting for 45.5 percent of all bank account savings in the country.
Savings held by the top 1 percent accounted for 72.8 percent of all savings at Citibank Korea Inc., 54.3 percent at Jeonbuk Bank Ltd., 54 percent at Standard Chartered Bank Korea Ltd., 53 percent at Kwangju Bank Ltd., and 52 percent at KEB Hana Bank.
The proportion of savings held by the top 1 percent has increased from 44.3 percent in 2014 to 45.5 percent this year.
There are currently 267.5 million bank accounts open at the 18 nationwide commercial banks in South Korea.
There were five bank accounts with savings of more than 100 billion won, 221 accounts with savings between 10 billion won and 100 billion won, and 553 accounts with savings between 5 billion won and 10 billion won.
“The current structure in cash assets shows that inequality is now deeply rooted in Korean society,” said Lee.
H. M. Kang (hmkang@koreabizwire.com)
