Seoul, Jan 23 (IANS) Daily foreign exchange (FX) trading by banks in South Korea hit an all-time high last year, driven by increased cross-border stock trading, central bank data showed on Friday.

Average daily FX turnover, including derivatives trading, came to US$80.71 billion in 2025, up 17 per cent from the previous year’s $68.96 billion, according to the data from the Bank of Korea (BOK), reports Yonhap news agency.

It marked the highest annual level since the central bank began compiling such data under the current statistical standards in 2008.

“Amid extended foreign exchange market trading hours, stock investment-related trading by residents and foreign investors increased sharply,” a BOK official said.

Average daily spot FX turnover climbed 26.1 per cent on-year to $32.38 billion last year, while derivatives trading increased 11.6 per cent to $48.33 billion over the cited period.

Residents’ overseas stock investment amounted to $129.4 billion in the first 11 months of last year, already higher than the previous year’s $72.2 billion, the data showed.

Foreign investors’ investment in South Korean stocks also jumped 129 per cent on-year to $50.4 billion in 2025, according to the data from the BOK.

Meanwhile, more than one in four financial experts believe increased volatility in the foreign exchange (FX) market poses the biggest risk to the country’s financial system, a central bank survey showed on Friday.

According to the survey conducted by the Bank of Korea (BOK) on 75 financial experts at home and abroad between November and December, 26.7 percent said heightened volatility in the local FX market is the biggest risk, among others, to the financial system in Asia’s fourth-largest economy.

Some 16 per cent said high household debt poses the second-largest risk to the financial system.

The South Korean won has long traded below the multiyear low of 1,450 won to the greenback, in the face of capital outflows caused by increased overseas stock investment and geopolitical risks stemming from the Middle East and Europe.

The respondents cited uncertainties in economic and monetary policies among major economies, and an adjustment in the global asset market as major external factors that may hurt the financial system.

Some 12 per cent said there is a high possibility of a short-term shock occurring within a year undermining the financial system, the survey showed.

—IANS

na/