The country’s capital-at-risk products record a 61% drop in outstanding balance by the end of March compared to the prior year period.

The outstanding balance of equity-linked securities (ELS) and equity-linked bonds (ELBs) fell over 11% year-on-year to KRW53.1 trillion (US$36.9 billion) by the end of the first quarter of this year, according to the Korea Securities Depository (KSD)’s latest report. Despite the drop, this year's Q1 figure is the highest seen since the start of 2024, the report stated.  The outstanding for ELS, also known as capital-at-risk autocallable notes, slightly rebounded to KRW 10.9 trillion