2019 Witnesses US$225 Million Increase
Outbound foreign investment by South Korean financial and insurance companies amounted to 19.86 trillion won (US$16.97 billion) in the first nine months of 2019, surpassing the figure for the whole of 2018 by 260 billion won (US$225 million), data released by the Export-Import Bank of Korea on Jan. 6 show.
Overseas investment by Korean financial and insurance companies has continued to expand recently. The figure increased from 10.4 trillion won (US$8.89 billion) in 2016 to 15.4 trillion won (US$13.16 billion) in 2017 and 19.5 trillion won (US$16.74 billion) in 2018. Financial investment companies led the growth in overseas investment. Financial holding companies, credit card firms and finance businesses also invested overseas.
As a result, the number of new corporations established overseas by domestic financial and insurance companies is also on the rise. A total of 265 new corporations were set up overseas by the end of September last year, 16 more than the 249 in the previous year. The figure rose from 113 in 2015 to 156 in 2016 and 182 in 2017.