Nearly 15 trillion won ($11.06 billion) was withdrawn from fixed-term deposit accounts and installment savings accounts at five major commercial banks in Korea in the past month, according to data, Tuesday.A fixed-term deposit account is where a lump sum of money is invested all at once for a fixed duration, in return for a predetermined interest rate for the corresponding period.Also, an interest-bearing account, is an installment savings account for investors who want to save a smaller amount of money periodically until maturity.Market observers analyzed that the investors withdrew money to invest mainly in stocks and cryptocurrencies, as the benchmark KOSPI is on the rebound while Bitcoin and other digital coins are enjoying a strong rally.The data compiled by the five banks — KB Kookmin, Shinhan, Hana, Woori and NH NongHyup — showed the outstanding balance of their fixed-term deposit accounts (combined) totaled 873.37 trillion won as of Sunday. The amount was down 12.87 trillion won from a month earlier.Regarding installment savings accounts, the outstanding balance was 31.37 trillion won, down 1.84 trillion won from the previous month.
The decrease in the outstanding balance of fixed-term deposit accounts and installment savings accounts collectively was worth 14.72 trillion won.“We believe the cash pulled out from the banks was invested in the stock and digital asset markets,” a market observer said, noting the benchmark KOSPI remained sluggish at the 2,400 point level in January but has constantly advanced to surpass the 2,700 point level, the first time in nearly two years for the KOSPI to do so.For cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin topped 100 million won per coin for the first time in Korea in March.Such a rally was driven by the landmark decision made by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in January when it approved the trading of Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) on traditional U.S. market exchanges.The daily trading volume of Seoul’s five cryptocurrency exchanges — Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, Korbit and Gopax — surpassed 14 trillion won at one point in March.Some market observers said that investors were withdrawing money from banks because they found the deposit interest rates unsatisfactory.The rate is in the range of 3.45 percent to 3.55 percent annually, compared to 카지노사이트킹 the Bank of Korea’s benchmark interest rate at 3.5 percent.