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Over 200 children have large bank accounts

More than 200 South Korean children aged 7 to 13 have bank accounts with a balance of 100 million won ($88,000) or higher, with their average balance hovering well above the mean of local households' financial assets, government data showed Tuesday.

According to the data by the Financial Supervisory Service, 224 bank accounts owned by children in the age bracket have a balance of 100 million won or larger, with the total balance reaching 54.9 billion won, and the average balance coming to 245 million won.


The figure is nearly 2.6 times local households' average financial assets, which stood at 94 million won as of the end of March last year.

Market watchers pointed out that rich people could use those high-amount bank accounts as a means to donate wealth to their children and grandchildren illegally.

South Korean parents and grandparents are required to pay gift taxes when they give 20 million won or more in cash to their underage offspring.

Meanwhile, the data also showed that children ages 7 to 13 have a combined 2.16 million bank accounts, with their balances totaling 2.38 trillion won.

According to Statistics Korea, the population of South Koreans in that age group came to 2.72 million as of end-2006, which means some have no bank accounts. (Yonhap)