A surge in residents’ overseas securities investment and foreigners’ investment in South Korean securities pushed banks’ average daily foreign exchange trading to a record high last year.

In its “2025 Trends in Foreign Exchange Trading by Foreign Exchange Banks” released on Friday, the Bank of Korea said foreign exchange banks’ average daily FX trading volume, including spot and FX derivatives transactions, totalled $80.71 billion last year.

That was up 17.0 percent from 2024’s $68.96 billion, the highest level since a statistical revision in 2008.

A Bank of Korea official explained that, as the impact of extended FX market trading hours continued, transactions related to residents’ overseas securities investment and foreigners’ domestic securities investment rose sharply.

On a balance of payments basis, residents’ overseas securities investment rose 79.2 percent to $129.4 billion in January to November last year from $72.2 billion for the full year of 2024. Over the same period, foreigners’ domestic securities investment also jumped 129.1 percent to $50.4 billion from $22.0 billion.

By product, average daily spot trading rose 26.1 percent to $32.38 billion, while FX derivatives trading increased 11.6 percent to $48.33 billion.

By bank type, domestic banks’ FX trading increased 21.2 percent to $37.54 billion, and foreign bank branches’ trading rose 13.6 percent to $43.17 billion.

[Yonhap News Agency]