How Much Can You Safely Hold at One Bank

How KRW 100 Million Is Counted

The limit has been KRW 100 million since September 1, 2025. Before that it was KRW 50 million. No separate application is needed, and a covered deposit opened before September 1 receives the KRW 100 million limit as well.

Principal is not the only thing counted

Principal plus interest has to stay within KRW 100 million for the full amount to be returned. Deposit KRW 99 million and earn KRW 2 million in interest and the total is KRW 101 million, leaving the KRW 1 million above the line outside the covered range.

The interest here is not the interest printed on the statement. It is recalculated at whichever is lower, the contracted rate or the rate published by 예금보험공사 (the Korea Deposit Insurance Corporation).

Setting the interest aside in advance

Taking a one-year deposit at 3.0% per year and varying the amount deposited gives the following.

Calculated simply at the contracted rate. The amount actually protected is recalculated at whichever is lower, the contracted rate or the published rate.

Fill the account to KRW 100 million and the entire KRW 3 million of interest falls outside the range. The higher the rate and the longer the term, the more has to be set aside.

Which Products Are Covered

예금보험공사 lists deposits and savings accounts at banks and savings banks, surrender values on insurance contracts, and customer deposits held at securities firms among the products covered.

Outside the coverage are financial investment products such as funds, performance-based products, securities-firm CMAs, subordinated bonds, and the main contract of a variable insurance policy excluding its minimum guarantee. Securities-firm CMAs are widely used for parking cash, but they are not covered.

Products that guarantee repayment of principal are covered; products whose payout varies with investment performance are not.

Retirement pensions and ISAs turn on what is inside

These two appear on both sides because the judgment rests on the products held inside rather than on the account itself. The same IRP is covered when it holds deposits and not covered when it holds funds.

Which side a product falls on is stated in the product description and the terms. Products subject to deposit insurance carry a note on coverage and the limit; products outside it say so explicitly. A name that looks like a deposit but carries no such note is not covered.

The Limit Is the Same Wherever You Deposit

Deposit protection runs through 예금보험공사, so the same KRW 100 million applies at a nationwide bank, a regional bank, or an internet-only bank as long as it is a member institution. Savings banks are the same.

On the coverage limit alone, there is no reason to screen by the name of the bank.

새마을금고 and 신협 are protected by different bodies

The limit is the same KRW 100 million; what differs is who provides the protection. Banks, savings banks, insurance companies, and securities firms fall under 예금보험공사. 새마을금고, 신협, the local cooperatives of 농협 and 수협, and 산림조합 are protected under their own statutes, each through its central federation's own fund.

The September 2025 increase applied to both alike. What changes for a depositor is who returns the money, not the amount.

How to Split a Balance Above KRW 100 Million

Split by financial institution. KRW 100 million at bank A and KRW 100 million at bank B are each covered. Different branches of the same bank count as one place.

Savings banks also count separately when the company differs. Savings banks under a shared group name are treated as separate financial institutions with separate limits where they are separately incorporated.

Check retirement pensions before moving anything

DC and individual (IRP) retirement pensions are covered up to a separate KRW 100 million each, apart from ordinary deposits. Hold KRW 100 million in deposits and KRW 100 million in an IRP at the same institution and both sit within their limits.

Pension savings and insurance claim proceeds also carry separate limits, given their social-security character. Counting retirement pensions separately reduces how much has to move to other banks.

This is a different measure from the preferential-rate cap

Parking accounts set their own balance band for the preferential rate. Anything above the band earns only the base rate. The coverage limit and the preferential-rate cap are separate measures, and the amount to split follows from both. KRW 100 million being covered does not mean the preferential rate applies to the whole KRW 100 million.

Frequently Asked Questions