There are 52 minors in South Korea who hold 1 billion won or more in bank deposits or savings accounts, data showed.

According to data provided to Representative Park Sung-hoon of the People Power Party, a member of the National Assembly's Political Affairs Committee, by the Korea Federation of Banks, the total balance of deposits and savings accounts held by minors aged 18 or younger across 19 domestic banks stood at 9.7413 trillion won as of the end of July. This represents an increase of 1.4548 trillion won, or 17.6%, compared to the end of 2022.

The number of accounts under minors' names also surged by 36% over the same period, rising from approximately 6.61 million to about 8.99 million.

A breakdown of the deposit balances showed that 2,419 minors held between 100 million won and less than 500 million won, 124 held between 500 million won and less than 1 billion won, and 52 held 1 billion won or more.

The total number of minors holding 100 million won or more is 2,595.

Notably, the number of minors holding 1 billion won or more increased by 10 over a span of 7 months, rising from 42 at the end of last year.

Deposits and savings accounts under the names of infants and toddlers aged 0 to 5 also reached 2.1399 trillion won.

This accounts for roughly 22% of all minor deposits and savings.

By age group, those aged 6 to 12 accounted for the largest share at 3.5864 trillion won, followed by those aged 16 to 18 with 2.1463 trillion won, and those aged 13 to 15 with 1.8688 trillion won.

However, the scale of deposits and savings for the vast majority of minors was not large.

Minors with a balance of less than 1 million won numbered approximately 5.6 million, accounting for 77.5% of the total.

In terms of stocks, as of the end of last year, 5,400 minors held domestic listed stocks worth 100 million won or more, with their total holdings in domestic listed stocks amounting to 7.3113 trillion won.

Representative Park Sung-hoon stated that while legitimate asset inheritance or formation should not be an issue, it is necessary to examine whether there are any blind spots regarding the source of funds and the reporting of gifts in the process of large-scale financial assets being transferred to minors.

Reported by Sim Yeong-gu | Video by Park Jin-hyung | Graphics by Lee Jeong-ju | Produced by SBS Digital News