[2026 Parliamentary Audit] BOK's Foreign Currency Asset Management Returns Near 17 Trillion Won Last Year, a 'Record High'

Impact of rising exchange rates and stock prices

The Bank of Korea earned nearly 17 trillion won in returns by managing its foreign currency assets last year. Returns rose 32% from the previous year, reaching a record high, driven by a rise in the exchange rate and stock prices.

Exterior view of the Bank of Korea.

According to data submitted to the National Assembly by the Bank of Korea at the request of Lee Jong-wook of the People Power Party, a member of the National Assembly’s Finance and Economy Planning Committee, the Bank of Korea’s returns on foreign currency asset management totaled 16.9 trillion won last year. That was an increase of 4.1 trillion won, or 32%, from 12.8 trillion won the previous year, setting a record.

Management returns are the combined realized gains and losses from assets managed directly by the Bank of Korea and those entrusted to outside managers. They include interest on securities and deposits, dividends, and gains and losses from securities trading, less management costs such as fees, and are converted into Korean won in accordance with the Bank of Korea’s accounting standards.

Over the past 10 years, the Bank of Korea’s returns on foreign currency asset management rose from around 8 trillion won in 2016-2018 to 11.8 trillion won in 2019, surpassing 10 trillion won for the first time. They then increased to 13.5 trillion won in 2020 and 13.8 trillion won in 2021, before plunging to 3.9 trillion won in 2022 and rebounding to 4.9 trillion won in 2023.

In its "2025 Annual Report," published in March this year, the Bank of Korea said the increase in returns last year was due to "the rise in the won-dollar exchange rate and increases in securities prices, among other factors." It added that it "focused on liquidity and safety in consideration of volatility in international financial markets and sought to improve profitability through diverse investment strategies."

The share of foreign currency assets managed by external managers increased. At the end of last year, outsourced assets accounted for 25.5%, up 7.5 percentage points over the past 10 years. By contrast, the share of directly managed assets fell from 82.0% to 74.5% over the same period.

Cash and cash-equivalent assets accounted for 10.6% of all foreign currency assets directly managed by the Bank of Korea, their largest share in the past 10 years. This is understood to reflect efforts to secure sufficient liquidity to stabilize the foreign exchange market if needed.

The Bank of Korea did not disclose specific returns. It said that a focus on short-term returns could constrain its management priorities of safety and liquidity for foreign exchange reserves. It also withheld the total size of its foreign currency assets, which could be used to estimate returns, citing concerns that disclosure could reveal the size of the Foreign Exchange Stabilization Fund’s assets and its capacity to intervene in the foreign exchange market.

Lee Jong-wook said, "The increase in returns on foreign currency asset management is positive, but it is necessary to distinguish the effect of the rise in the exchange rate from actual investment performance. The Bank of Korea should provide sufficient data for the National Assembly to assess its management performance and the appropriateness of outsourced management, while maintaining confidentiality where necessary."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.