South Korea Financial Supervisory Service reports March corporate financing rose to KRW19.98 trillion while CP and short-term bond issuance reached KRW200.47 trillion

The South Korea Financial Supervisory Service published its March 2026 corporate financing data, showing that corporate debt and equity issuance increased 3.8% month on month to KRW19.9832 trillion. Within that total, debt issuance rose 3.4% to KRW19.5430 trillion and equity issuance increased 28.9% to KRW440.2 billion. Commercial paper and short-term bond issuance rose more sharply, up 25.6% from February to KRW200.4738 trillion. Equity issuance was supported by seven public equity offerings, whose gross proceeds rose 353.3% to KRW229.8 billion, while proceeds from nine initial public offerings fell 27.6% to KRW210.4 billion. In debt markets, corporate bond issuance declined 6.5% to KRW4.7810 trillion, with 85.6% of proceeds used to repay existing debt, while financial debenture issuance edged up to KRW13.4424 trillion and asset-backed securities issuance jumped 208.7% to KRW1.3196 trillion, including KRW571.6 billion of primary collateralized bond obligations. Commercial paper issuance increased 23.5% to KRW46.7698 trillion and short-term bond issuance rose 26.3% to KRW153.7040 trillion. At end-March, the outstanding balance of debt stood at KRW747.3152 trillion, down from a month earlier, while outstanding CP fell 5.5% to KRW231.9122 trillion and outstanding short-term bonds rose 5.8% to KRW91.5353 trillion.