South Korean minor deposits hit 9.74 trillion won, lawmaker says

As of July of this year, 52 minors in South Korea hold bank deposits and savings accounts exceeding 1 billion won, according to data from a lawmaker. Data submitted by the Korea Federation of Banks to People Power Party lawmaker Park Sung-hoon shows that total minor deposits across 19 commercial banks reached 9.74 trillion won, marking a 17.6% increase from the end of 2022, as reported by the Herald Economy.

Minor Bank Accounts Grow While Wealth Remains Skewed

The total number of accounts held by individuals aged 18 and under climbed 36.0% to 8,995,055 over the same period. While total capitalization expanded, the distribution of wealth among minor account holders remained heavily skewed toward low balances. Depositors with less than 1 million won numbered 5.60 million, accounting for 77.5% of all minor bank customers.

Depositors with 10 billion won or more increased by 10 from the previous year’s total of 42.

Concentration of Wealth in Early Childhood

Infants aged zero to five held more than 2,139.9 billion won across 1.12 million accounts, representing 22.0% of all minor bank deposits. Children aged six to twelve held the largest share among age brackets at 3,586.4 billion won. Adolescents aged 16 to 18 accounted for 2.14 trillion won, while those aged 13 to 15 held 1,868.8 billion won.

Woori Bank recorded 422 such accounts, while NH Nonghyup Bank registered 172. These figures reflect simple bank-by-bank aggregations and may include duplicate counts for individuals utilizing multiple institutions.

Regulators Scrutinize Large-Scale Stock Holdings

Total domestic listed stock holdings among minors reached 7.31 trillion won.

Lawmaker Park Sung-hoon noted that while standard inheritance and asset accumulation are legitimate, authorities must closely examine whether blind spots exist regarding the source of funds and proper gift tax reporting when massive financial assets transfer to minors, according to the Herald Economy.