The country’s capital-at-risk products record a 61% drop in outstanding balance by the end of March compared to the prior year’s 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 the year despite reaching a quarterly high within a year, according to the Korea Securities Depository (KSD)’s latest report. The outstanding for ELS, also known as capital-at-risk autocallable notes, slightly rebounded to KRW 10.9 trillion after a continuous decline throughout 2024 following the countr