South Korea’s four major commercial banks increased combined corporate bond holdings to ₩79.6767 trillion at the end of June, up ₩4.8566 trillion, or about 6.4%, from the end of last year. The purchases are focused on high-quality debt as rising market rates improve returns and household-lending rules push banks toward corporate finance. KB Kookmin and Shinhan increased their holdings, Woori recorded the sharpest percentage gain, and Hana’s total declined because of lower government-invested company bond holdings even as its ordinary corporate bond balance rose about 16%. Yields on publicly offered AAA-rated unsecured corporate bonds were about 3.8% for one year, 4.3% for three years and 4.4% for five years as of the 4th, while issuance of such debt reached ₩6.8 trillion from January through July, up 48.1% from a year earlier. Corporate lending is also expanding, with the five largest commercial banks’ balances reaching ₩883.9647 trillion at the end of last month. However, 94.2% of June’s monthly increase in deposit-bank lending went to working capital, the highest share in about seven years, highlighting liquidity pressures rather than a broad investment surge. Separately, time deposits at the five largest banks surpassed ₩1,000 trillion at the end of August as higher rates and equity-market volatility encouraged investors to favor guaranteed returns.