CD rates may be replaced with Cofix standard

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CD rates may be replaced with Cofix standard

Korea plans to announce a new money market rate as early as next month to replace rates on certificate of deposit (CD), which have been under a spotlight due to banks’ alleged rate fixing, industry sources said yesterday.

The move follows the country’s antitrust watchdog launching an investigation into major local banks and brokerage houses over their suspected involvement in rigging rates on the 91-day CDs, the benchmark for bank lending rates.

Financial authorities are mulling plans to replace CD rates with rates on three-month Cost of Funds Index (Cofix) as a new key money market rate, according to industry sources.

A task force, including the financial watchdog and the Ministry of Strategy and Finance, plans to announce the decision as early as next month.

A CD is a financial instrument sold by banks and circulated in secondary markets by securities firms. Most bank mortgage loans are tied to CD rates, raising chances that higher CD rates might contribute to increased debt-repaying burdens for households.

Cofix, currently used as another benchmark for bank lending rates, is calculated by averaging interests paid on capital funding by nine major lenders. Rates on Cofix, whose maturity stands at nine months on average, are made public every month.

The task force is planning to set the maturity of Cofix rates to three months to reflect market situations and the new benchmark rate may be announced every week, sources added. If introduced, banks’ lending rates may fall by 0.1 percentage point on average. Yonhap
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