The total assets under custody at trust companies surpassed 1,500 trillion won last year, driven by the strong performance of securities firms led by exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

According to the Financial Supervisory Service announcement on the 15th of the ‘2025 Trust Business Operating Results’ (provisional), the total assets under custody at 60 trust companies at the end of last year were 1,516.5 trillion won, an increase of 10% (138.4 trillion won) from a year earlier. By share of assets under custody, banks (696 trillion won·45.9%), real estate trust companies (457.5 trillion won·30.2%), securities firms (332 trillion won·21.9%), and insurance (31 trillion won·2%) accounted for the largest portions in that order.

The sector with the largest increase was securities firms, which grew 20.7% (56.9 trillion won) from the previous year on inflows into time-deposit-type trusts and retirement pension assets. Banks and insurance rose 7.4% (47.9 trillion won) and 11.1% (3.1 trillion won), respectively, and real estate trust companies also increased by 7.1% (30.5 trillion won).

An FSS official analyzed, “Growth continued in retirement pension trusts at securities firms, where investing in ETFs and similar products is convenient, and relatively high-rate time-deposit-type funds at securities firms attracted inflows.”

Within assets under custody, property trusts such as those secured by real estate accounted for the largest share at 52% (788.4 trillion won), followed by monetary trusts such as retirement pensions (726.5 trillion won·47.9%) and comprehensive property trusts (1.6 trillion won·0.1%).

Trust fees last year totaled 2.0915 trillion won, up 1.4% (28.6 billion won) from the previous year. Banks·securities·insurance that conduct trust business alongside their main businesses recorded 1.5019 trillion won, an increase of 16.4% (211.4 billion won), whereas stand-alone real estate trust companies were the only ones to decline, down 23.7% (182.8 billion won) to 589.6 billion won. This was due to weak operating performance amid the real estate market slump.

An FSS official said, “We will continue to monitor potential risk factors at both mixed-business and stand-alone trust companies,” and added, “We will support trust companies so that they can faithfully perform their role of systematically managing the assets of the public.”