Chasing a bit more interest with a savings-bank special-rate deposit in Korea, the same worry surfaces: "what if it goes under?" The usual answer is "you're covered to ₩100 million, so just split it ₩100 million at a time." ⭐ We opened the deposit insurer's own pages, and three things that answer does not explain came out.
Curious about after-tax payouts on higher-rate products? Compare in the savings maturity calculator.
⭐ The source text first — what the ₩100 million is actually attached to
Straight from the Korea Deposit Insurance Corporation (KDIC) "Protection limit" page, checked 30 July 2026.
| Item | KDIC source text |
|---|---|
| Limit | "principal and prescribed interest combined, up to ₩100 million per person; amounts above that are not protected" |
| ⭐ Unit of application | "protected up to ₩100 million per person per financial institution" |
| Per product or branch? | "not a limit per deposit type or per branch, but the total a single depositor can be protected for within the same institution" (foreign-currency deposits included) |
| ⚠️⚠️ "Prescribed interest" | ⚠️ "the lesser of the contracted interest and the rate the Corporation sets" |
| ⭐⭐ If you hold a loan there | "the loan is first repaid (set off) out of the deposit, and protection applies to what remains" |
| "One depositor" | "covers not only individuals but also corporations" |
| Anything above the cap | If the failed institution has assets left after senior claims, the remainder is distributed pro rata |
⭐ "Not per branch" is stated explicitly. Opening accounts at different branches of the same bank still leaves you with one combined ₩100 million. ⭐ And foreign-currency deposits sit inside that same ₩100 million.
⭐⭐⭐ Why "split it ₩100 million at a time" is not quite right
The cap is not on principal. It is on "principal and prescribed interest combined." ⭐ Deposit exactly ₩100 million and every won of interest falls outside cover.
⭐ Run it backwards and you get the largest principal whose maturity value lands on ₩100 million (one year, simple, pre-tax — our calculation).
| Contracted rate | ⭐ Principal that matures at ₩100M | Deposit ₩100M and |
|---|---|---|
| 3.0% | ₩97,087,378 | ₩3.0M sits outside cover |
| 3.5% | ₩96,618,357 | ₩3.5M outside |
| 4.0% | ₩96,153,846 | ₩4.0M outside |
| ⚠️ 4.5% | ⚠️ ₩95,693,779 | ⚠️ ₩4.5M outside |
⚠️⚠️ The higher the rate, the less principal you can put in. Precisely the people hunting special rates face a lower principal ceiling. ⭐ Rate and cap pull in opposite directions.
⭐⭐ Which also breaks "₩300 million means three institutions." At 3.5% the ceiling per institution is ₩96.62 million, so three of them absorb ₩289.86 million. ⚠️ ₩10.14 million is left over and a fourth institution is needed (our calculation).
⚠️ This is the conservative side of the estimate. "Prescribed interest" is the lesser of the contracted rate and the Corporation's rate, so protected interest may be less than contracted. ⭐ That would leave more principal headroom — but the figure is only fixed once a failure happens. The contracted rate is the only number you can plan against, so we used it.
⭐⭐ A deposit at an institution where you owe money is counted differently
One sentence on the page reads: "where the depositor holds a loan at the institution, the loan is first repaid (set off) out of the deposit, and protection applies to the remaining deposit."
| Situation | Common assumption | ⭐ Per the source text |
|---|---|---|
| ₩80M deposit only | ₩80M protected | ₩80M protected (same) |
| ⚠️ ₩80M deposit + ₩30M loan | ⚠️ "under the ₩100M cap, so ₩80M is safe" | ⭐ protection applies to ₩50M after set-off |
⭐ This is not a loss. The loan disappears alongside it, so net position is unchanged. ⚠️ What changes is how much of the cap you are using. In the example above the cap consumed is ₩50 million, not ₩80 million — meaning another ₩50 million at the same institution would still be covered.
⚠️ The page stops there. Which loan is set off first, and whether arrears change it, is not stated. We quote it and go no further. Borrowing alongside saving is covered in our pay down debt vs save article.
⭐ Three separate limits sit on top — up to ₩400 million at one institution
The page lists categories protected "separately from" ordinary deposits.
| Category | Limit | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Ordinary covered deposits | ₩100M | Principal + prescribed interest, foreign currency included |
| DC, IRP and small-business retirement fund reserves | ₩100M separately | ⭐ the three combined share one ₩100M |
| Pension savings (trust and insurance) | ₩100M separately | — |
| Insurance claim proceeds | ₩100M separately | — |
| ⭐ Total (our arithmetic) | ⭐ up to ₩400M | ⚠️ only if you hold all four |
⚠️ "₩400 million" is our phrase, not the page's. The source says only "each of these is protected separately, up to ₩100 million per subscriber" and never adds them up. Pension accounts are covered in our pension savings and IRP tax credit article.
⚠️⚠️ Not every "₩100 million protection" is the same scheme
The KDIC covered-products table names five sectors — banks, securities firms, insurers, merchant banks, and savings banks with their federation.
⚠️⚠️ Mutual finance bodies — Saemaul Geumgo, Shinhyup, local NH cooperatives — are not on that table. ⭐ That does not mean no protection; it means a different statute and a different fund, not deposit insurance. ⚠️ We could not read those bodies' own source pages, so this article stops at "they are not on the KDIC table" (see below).
⭐ The page also names depositors excluded outright: central and local government (including state and public schools), the Bank of Korea, the Financial Supervisory Service, the KDIC itself, and insured financial institutions.
⚠️ At a savings bank, what actually decides it is the product's name
The savings-bank row of the covered-products table, transcribed.
| ⭐ Covered | ⚠️ Not covered |
|---|---|
| Ordinary deposits, savings deposits, term deposits, instalment savings, credit instalments, cover bills | ⚠️⚠️ Savings-bank issued bonds (including subordinated bonds) |
| DC and IRP reserves run in covered products | ⚠️ DB reserves |
| ISA holdings that are covered products | — |
| Cashier's cheques issued by the savings bank federation | — |
⭐⭐ The term deposits and instalment savings you go looking for are in the covered column. ⚠️⚠️ The one to watch is the subordinated bond — a savings bank sells it at a higher headline rate, but it is a bond, not a deposit, and it is not covered. Compared on rate alone it looks adjacent to a deposit; it is a different instrument.
⭐ More same-name confusion exists — a securities-firm CMA is not covered, while a merchant bank's cash management account is. The full table is in our emergency fund article. The deposit-versus-instalment question itself is in our deposit vs instalment savings article.
⚠️⚠️ One number on the page contradicts another
The body of the protection-limit page says ₩100 million. A footnote on the same page still reads: "depositors with ₩50 million or less may continue on existing contract terms with the acquiring institution."
⭐ Wording that appears to predate the increase. Checked 30 July 2026, and this article does not use the footnote figure. ⚠️ The page gives no explanation, so we did not guess at one.
Questions that remain
So how much can I put in one institution?
⭐ Enough that maturity value at the contracted rate stays under ₩100 million. At 3.5% for one year that is roughly ₩96.62 million (our calculation). ⚠️ Any other deposit at the same institution — including foreign currency — is added in, so subtract it.
Do several accounts at one bank each get cover?
⚠️ No. The source says cover is "not per deposit type or per branch, but the total." Same institution means one combined ₩100 million, however many accounts.
Aren't savings banks risky?
⭐ For covered products within the cap, protection works the same way as at a bank. ⚠️ Two things split the outcome — "is it a deposit rather than a subordinated bond," and "do I hold a loan at this institution." Check those two and a special rate is usable within the cap.
Does a couple get ₩100 million each?
⭐ The text says "per person." ⚠️ That assumes the accounts are genuinely in separate names; how joint accounts are apportioned is not on this page. We could not verify it, so we do not state it.
What about interest tax?
⚠️ The cap is written on a pre-tax basis. What reaches you is after interest income tax, so the two differ. Compare after-tax amounts in the maturity calculator.
"Just split it ₩100 million at a time" only holds if the cap were on principal. It is on principal plus interest — and where you hold a loan, on what remains after set-off.
Sources
- ⭐⭐⭐ Korea Deposit Insurance Corporation — agency source — "Protection limit" (checked 30 July 2026). Source for "principal and prescribed interest up to ₩100 million per person," "per financial institution," "not per deposit type or branch," foreign-currency inclusion, corporations, the definition of prescribed interest, set-off, the three separate limits, and pro-rata distribution of the remainder.
- ⭐⭐⭐ Korea Deposit Insurance Corporation — agency source — "Products covered by deposit insurance" (checked 30 July 2026). Source for the five sectors' covered and uncovered lists, the savings-bank row and its subordinated-bond exclusion, and the depositors excluded outright.
- ⚠️ A KDIC notice posted by the Korea Financial Investment Association (an association posting, not the agency's own page) — "From 1 September 2025, protection rises from ₩50 million to ₩100 million, principal and interest included" (posted 26 August 2025). Used only for the effective date, which the protection-limit page itself does not state.
- ⭐ Our own calculation. The principal that matures at ₩100M by rate (₩97,087,378 / ₩96,618,357 / ₩96,153,846 / ₩95,693,779), the interest above cover on ₩100M (₩3.0M / 3.5M / 4.0M / 4.5M), ₩289.86M across three institutions at 3.5% with ₩10.14M left over, and the ₩400M total of the separate limits are all ours, not figures printed in the source. One year, simple interest, pre-tax.
What we could not verify
- ⚠️⚠️ How mutual finance bodies protect deposits (Saemaul Geumgo, Shinhyup, local NH cooperatives). They are absent from the KDIC table. They are said to run their own statutory funds, but we could not read those bodies' source pages, so no limit or scope is stated here.
- ⚠️ Post office deposits. Widely described as fully state-guaranteed, but we could not confirm the source text. Left out of the body.
- ⚠️ The actual value of the Corporation-set rate. The page gives the method but no current figure, so we could not compute the gap from a contracted rate.
- ⚠️ The order and scope of set-off. Which loan first, and whether arrears change it, is not on the page.
- ⚠️ Joint and family-name accounts. The text says "per person" but says nothing about how a joint account is apportioned.
- ⚠️⚠️ Why the ₩50 million wording survives in the footnote. No explanation is given. We did not judge whether it is a stale edit or something else.
- Actual special rates. They move constantly, so no figures appear here. Compare at sign-up time on the Financial Supervisory Service's product comparison site.
As of July 2026. The limit and how it applies are sentences from two KDIC pages; the amounts are our arithmetic. ⚠️ This is general information, not a product recommendation or investment advice. Coverage differs by product — check the protection marking on the sign-up screen.
