Depositors of over 1 billion won totals 5000

The number of wealthy people who have more than 1 billion won in one bank account has reached 5,000 across the country, the Bank of Korea (BOK) said Thursday. According to the central bank, as of the end of last year, there are a total of 4,847 accounts, each worth more than 1 billion won, and totaling 19.7 trillion won. Specifically, they include 3,488 savings accounts worth 15 trillion won in total, 322 certificate of deposit (CD) accounts worth 2,130 billion and 1,037 commercial-bill accounts worth 2.75 billion won. Particularly there were found to be 743 accounts worth 5 billion won each. A total of 429 were time-deposit accounts.

Under current law, the ceiling for individual depositor protection is set at 50 million per account. So people may ask why they put together funds more than 20 times as much as the protection ceiling just in one account. About that, a BOK official explained that the protection ceiling set at only 50 million won does not have a great meaning to wealthy people, so they tend to prefer depositing their funds in one bank in order to receive VIP treatment and adjust interest rates favorably for them through individual negotiations.

Sung Dong-Ki esprit@donga.com