Corporate pension funds top 500 trillion won in 2025 for first time

Corporate retirement pension schemes soared 16 percent last year from a year earlier, breaching the 500 trillion won ($331 billion) mark for the first time since their introduction in 2005, while their return on investment also rose, data showed Wednesday.

The total amount of corporate retirement pension funds under management came to 501.4 trillion won as of the end of 2025, up 70 trillion won, or 16.1 percent, from a year before, according to the data from the Financial Supervisory Service.

The funds recorded an average return of 6.5 percent on their investments last year, up from the previous year's 4.8 percent, marking the best performance since their introduction on the back of a stock rally last year.

In 2025, the country's benchmark Kospi bourse rallied by more than 75 percent.

The funds' average return on investment for the past five years came to 3.29 percent as of the end of 2025, with the 10-year annual rate standing at 2.64 percent.

The corporate pension program was introduced in 2005, allowing employees to receive their pension in one lump-sum payment or monthly installments upon retirement.

In 2025, out of some 500,000 people who received or began receiving payments from their corporate pension program, 16.5 percent chose monthly payments over a one-time payment.

The rate has been on a steady rise from 10.4 percent in 2023 and 13 percent in 2024.

Yonhap