[2023 Capital Investment Awards] Samsung Asset Management's 'Parking ETF' Investing in CDs Surpasses 3 Trillion Won in the Shortest Time

Samsung KODEX CD Interest Rate Active ETF

Samsung Asset Management won the Best Fund Award at the ‘2023 Asia Capital Investment Awards’ with the ‘Samsung KODEX CD Interest Rate Active ETF’.

This ETF, which invests in negotiable certificates of deposit (CDs), surpassed 3 trillion KRW in net assets just 84 trading days after its listing. This is the shortest period ever to reach 3 trillion KRW. The previous record was 105 trading days, set by Samsung Asset Management’s ‘KODEX KOFR Interest Rate Active (Synthetic) ETF.’ This means the record was advanced by more than 20 days.

Recently, investor interest in ultra-short-term interest rate products has significantly increased. With expectations that high interest rates in the US and other countries will continue and growing uncertainty in the stock market, investors have shown a stronger tendency to seek stable short-term high returns. Yuran Yoo, a manager at Samsung Asset Management, explained, "As the CD 91-day rate recently exceeded 3.8% annually amid a high interest rate environment, demand has been steadily increasing for placing idle funds into CD interest rate-type ETFs with a ‘parking’ structure."

In particular, this ETF gained popularity by demonstrating superior performance compared to existing products. Through differentiated active management, it has consistently recorded returns comparable to the CD 91-day rate, such as 3.78% annually over one month and 3.74% annually over three months. Compared to other CD interest rate ETFs that underperform the underlying CD interest rate index, it has relatively higher yields. The low management fee is also cited as a reason for its popularity. Among parking-type ETFs, it applies the lowest total fee of 2 basis points (1bp = 0.01%) annually.

Manager Yoo stated, "With the lowest fees and a differentiated active management approach, the ETF has consistently delivered returns at the CD interest rate level since listing. As investors recognize that they can ‘park’ their funds safely with low actual transaction costs, the net asset size is rapidly increasing."

KODEX is Samsung Asset Management’s ETF brand. Among the domestic ETF market worth 110 trillion KRW, 45.6 trillion KRW (market share 41.5%) is under the KODEX brand. In just this year alone, net assets have increased by more than 11 trillion KRW, rapidly widening the gap with the second place.