A total of 2,595 customers aged 18 or younger held at least 100 million won in deposits and installment savings at South Korean banks as of the end of July this year, and 52 of them had balances exceeding 1 billion won. Total deposits and savings held in the names of minors stood at 9.74 trillion won, approaching 10 trillion won.
Rep. Park Sung-hoon of the People Power Party, a member of the National Assembly's National Policy Committee, released the figures on the 5th based on data submitted by the Korea Federation of Banks. The data covers accounts held in the names of customers aged 18 or younger at 19 deposit-taking banks as of the end of July this year, including demand deposits, time deposits and installment savings. Park said authorities should examine the sources of funds behind large transfers to minors and how gift tax filings are being managed.
When accounts within each bank were combined by customer, 2,419 held between 100 million won and 500 million won, while 124 held between 500 million won and 1 billion won. A total of 176 held 500 million won or more. Compared with the end of last year, the number of customers with 1 billion won or more rose 23.8% from 42 to 52, while those with 100 million won or more increased 0.5% from 2,583 to 2,595. The figures, however, are a simple sum of customer counts at each bank, so the same person using multiple banks may have been counted more than once.
Hana Bank had the most customers with 100 million won or more, at 566. KB Kookmin Bank followed with 540, Shinhan Bank with 437, Woori Bank with 422 and NH NongHyup Bank with 172. Hana Bank had 14 customers with 1 billion won or more, and Shinhan Bank had 12.
High-balance customers remain a small minority. Of the 7,227,938 minors holding accounts, 5,602,273, or 77.5%, had balances of less than 1 million won.
Deposits and savings held in the names of minors have grown steadily since the end of 2022. The balance, which stood at 8.29 trillion won at the time, rose by 1.45 trillion won, or 17.6%, through the end of July this year. Over the same period, the number of accounts increased by 2,379,114, or 36%, from 6,615,941 to 8,995,055. The simple average balance per account fell to about 1.08 million won from about 1.25 million won.
By age group, children aged 6 to 12 held the largest amount at 3.59 trillion won. Those aged 16 to 18 held 2.15 trillion won, followed by children aged 0 to 5 with 2.14 trillion won and those aged 13 to 15 with 1.87 trillion won. Balances held in the names of children aged 5 and under accounted for 22.0% of the total, spread across 1,123,996 accounts.
By account, roughly 514 billion won was held in accounts with balances of 100 million won or more. Of that, about 63.9 billion won was in accounts holding between 500 million won and 1 billion won, and about 67.2 billion won was in accounts holding 1 billion won or more.
Large holdings also appear in the stock market. Data Park obtained from the Korea Securities Depository showed that 5,400 minors held at least 100 million won in domestically listed shares as of the end of last year. Minors held a combined 7.31 trillion won in domestically listed stocks.
Under the current inheritance and gift tax law, a minor child receiving a gift from a lineal ascendant is allowed a gift deduction of up to 20 million won over a 10-year period. Amounts above that threshold are subject to gift tax filing and payment. The data, however, does not show how the deposits were accumulated, so it is not possible to determine how much of the total came through gifts, inheritance or other routes.
"There is no need to question legitimate gifts or asset building," Park said, "but we must closely examine whether there are blind spots in oversight of the sources of funds and gift tax filings when large financial assets are transferred to minors."
