CMA Balances Surpass 100 Trillion Won as KOSPI Stalls

As the domestic stock market remains range-bound, balances in Cash Management Accounts (CMA) have continued to rise, surpassing 100 trillion won for the first time.

Yeouido Financial Supervisory Service building (right) and securities district buildings in Seoul. Photo by Younghan Heo younghan@

According to the Korea Financial Investment Association on December 24, the CMA balance stood at 100.6562 trillion won as of December 23. This is the first time since statistics have been compiled that the CMA balance has exceeded 100 trillion won.

The CMA balance, which was 87.1779 trillion won on January 2 this year, surpassed 90 trillion won on August 14, reaching 90.9722 trillion won. It then climbed to 99.8594 trillion won as of December 22.

A CMA is an account where securities firms receive customer funds and invest them in products such as commercial paper (CP), government and public bonds, and certificates of deposit (CD), returning the profits to investors.

Funds can be deposited and withdrawn freely, and interest is paid even for just one day of deposit. It is widely used as a place to park idle funds. Recently, as the domestic stock market has experienced repeated volatility without a clear direction, funds unable to find suitable investment opportunities have flowed into CMAs.

Recently, the domestic stock market has remained in a range-bound state. The KOSPI reached an all-time intraday high of 4,226.75 on November 4. However, it has since struggled to break past this record. On this day, it closed at 4,108.62, down 0.21% from the previous trading session.