More Than 50 Minors Hold Over 1 Billion Won in Domestic Bank Accounts

▲ The photo above is unrelated to the content of the article.

It has been revealed that more than 50 minors in domestic banks hold deposits and savings of 1 billion won or more.

The total balance of deposits and savings under the names of minor customers approached 10 trillion won.

The balance held by infants aged 0 to 5 also exceeded 2 trillion won.

According to data submitted by Representative Park Sung-hoon of the People Power Party, a member of the National Assembly's National Policy Committee, from the Korea Federation of Banks on the 5th, the total balance of deposits and savings for minors aged 18 or younger across 19 domestic commercial banks stood at 9.7413 trillion won as of the end of July this year.

This combined figure—encompassing demand deposits, time deposits, and installment savings—increased by 1.4548 trillion won (17.6%) compared to the end of 2022 (8.2865 trillion won).

During the same period, the number of deposit and savings accounts held by minors surged by 2.379114 million (36.0%), going from 6.615941 million to 8.99055 million.

Looking at individual balances—calculated by combining all deposits and savings held by a single minor across multiple accounts—a significant number of minors were found to possess large financial assets.

As of the end of July, minors with a combined deposit and savings balance ranging from 100 million won to under 500 million won numbered 2,419, those with 500 million won to under 1 billion won totaled 124, and those with 1 billion won or more accounted for 52.

Minors holding 100 million won or more totaled 2,595.

Among them, 176 held 500 million won or more.

The number of minors holding 1 billion won or more increased by 10 from 42 at the end of last year.

Over the same period, customers holding 100 million won or more increased by 12, rising from 2,583.

Categorized by bank, Hana Bank had the highest number of minors holding 100 million won or more with 566, followed by KB Kookmin Bank (540), Shinhan Bank (437), Woori Bank (422), and NH Nonghyup Bank (172).

Notably, minors holding 1 billion won or more were heavily concentrated in Hana Bank (14) and Shinhan Bank (12).

These figures are the sum of totals reported by each bank, meaning minors who use multiple banks may have been counted more than once.

Conversely, minors with deposit and savings balances of less than 1 million won numbered 5.602273 million, accounting for 77.5% of the 7.227938 million minors holding deposits and savings overall.

This means the vast majority of minors hold only small balances in their accounts.

Even when looking at balances per account rather than per individual, the scale of funds was substantial.

The total balance of accounts under minors' names containing 100 million won or more was approximately 514 billion won as of the end of July.

Among these, accounts with balances between 500 million won and under 1 billion won held about 63.9 billion won, while accounts with 1 billion won or more held about 67.2 billion won.

By age group, deposits and savings under the names of children aged 0 to 5 amounted to 2.1399 trillion won, accounting for 22.0% of all minor deposits and savings.

The number of accounts held by this age group was 1.123996 million.

The age group with the largest balance was 6 to 12 years old, holding 3.5864 trillion won.

Those aged 16 to 18 held 2.1463 trillion won, and those aged 13 to 15 held 1.8688 trillion won, respectively.

The holding of large financial assets by minors was also evident in the stock market.

According to separate data submitted by Representative Park Sung-hoon from the Korea Securities Depository, 5,400 minors held listed domestic stocks worth 100 million won or more at the end of last year.

The total value of domestic listed stocks held by minors reached 7.3113 trillion won.

Representative Park stated, "While normal inheritance or asset formation should not be called into question, there is a need to closely examine whether blind spots exist regarding the sources of funds and gift tax reports during the process of transferring massive financial assets to minors."

(Photo: Yonhap News)

※