Last year, the Bank of Korea's foreign currency asset management profit approached 17 trillion won... greatest ever

(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Jihoon Han = It was revealed that the Bank of Korea's profit from managing foreign currency assets last year was close to 17 trillion won.

According to data submitted by People Power Party lawmaker Lee Jong-wook, a member of the National Assembly's Finance and Economic Planning Committee, from the Bank of Korea on the 11th, the Bank of Korea's foreign currency asset management profits last year totaled 16.9 trillion won.

It increased by 4.1 trillion won (32%) from 2024 (12.8 trillion won), recording the highest ever.

Looking at foreign currency asset management profits over the past 10 years, it increased from 8 trillion won in 2016 to 2018 to 11.8 trillion won in 2019, 13.5 trillion won in 2020, and 13.8 trillion won in 2021. Afterwards, it plummeted to 3.9 trillion won in 2022, but then increased again to 4.9 trillion won in 2023.

This operating profit is the sum of realized profits and losses generated from assets directly managed by the Bank of Korea and assets entrusted to external parties.

It is a net operating profit that reflects operating costs such as commissions on securities and deposit interest, dividends, and securities trading profits and losses, and is converted to Korean won according to the Bank of Korea's accounting standards.

In relation to last year's profit increase, the Bank of Korea mentioned in the '2025 Annual Report' published in March, "Net profit related to foreign currency assets increased significantly compared to the previous year due to the influence of the rise in the won/dollar exchange rate and rise in securities prices."

He explained, “Considering the volatility of the international gold market, we focused on liquidity and safety,” adding, “We sought to improve profitability through various investment strategies.”

It is also noticeable that the proportion of external consignments in foreign currency asset management has expanded.

The proportion of entrusted assets at the end of last year was 25.5%, up 7.5 percentage points (p) from the end of 2016 (18.0%). During the same period, the proportion of directly managed assets decreased from 82.0% to 74.5%.

It is reported that the Bank of Korea expanded cross-currency foreign exchange transactions with domestic banks registered as foreign financial institutions (RFIs) located overseas last year.

In addition, direct management assets at the end of last year consisted of 10.6% cash assets and 63.9% direct investment assets. The two figures represent the proportion of total foreign currency assets.

In particular, the proportion of cash equivalents was at the highest level in the past 10 years, which appears to have been an attempt to secure sufficient foreign currency liquidity in order to take measures to stabilize the foreign exchange market (market intervention) in case of emergency.

However, the Bank of Korea did not disclose the specific operating rate of return, saying that if attention is focused on short-term profits, management that prioritizes the safety and liquidity of foreign exchange reserves may be restricted.

The total size of foreign currency assets from which the rate of return can be estimated was also kept confidential. The reason given was that the operating scale of the Foreign Exchange Balancing Fund and its ability to intervene in the foreign exchange market could be exposed.

Rep. Lee Jong-wook said, "It is positive that foreign currency asset management profits have increased, but it is necessary to distinguish between the effect of exchange rate appreciation and actual investment performance." He added, "The Bank of Korea must provide sufficient data so that the National Assembly can verify management performance and the appropriateness of consignment management while maintaining inevitable confidentiality protection."