Four of Korea’s five leading commercial banks lowered their deposit rates Sunday, prompting others to follow suit, weeks after the Bank of Korea cut the key policy rate by a quarter percentage point to a record-low 0.5 percent in May.

KB Kookmin Bank was the first to lower the annual rate to a low of 0.3 percent, down 0.3 percentage points from the previous 0.6 percent. Customers who purchase the bank’s more popular products will see the rate lowered to 0.25 percent from 0.5 percent.

Shinhan and NongHyup cut the rate, June 12, up to 0.5 percentage points and 0.4 percentage points, respectively. Woori said June 13 that it will lower the rate as much as 0.1 percentage point, starting June 17. Hana Bank is discussing a rate cut.

Korean branches of foreign banks had already cut the rate, June 8, with Standard Chartered Bank Korea and Citibank Korea both lowering it as much as 0.3 percentage points.

The collective move pushed depositors to move their money to savings banks, low-tier financial firms that offer higher interest rates than commercial banks.

Korea Federation of Savings Banks data showed its 75 members saw a combined deposit of 2.32 trillion won ($1.92 billion) in May, nearly double from 1.21 trillion won in January.

The funds are believed to have come from five major commercial banks which saw their combined deposit shrink to 643 trillion won in May, down from 647.3 trillion won in January.

Yet customer will not see any markedly greater profit, as savings banks’ deposit rates are also on the decline, with their annual rate averaging 1.88 percent as of June 12.

They lowered their rates as much as 0.5 percentage points following the central bank’s key rate cut.

The deposit rate decline has led to a corresponding increase in holdings of other asset classes including funds held for risky equity market investment and safe-haven U.S. dollar demands.

Investor deposit increased to over 45.8 trillion won as of June 11, from 42.4 trillion won, May 20. Funds held by cash management account (CMA) also soared to 55 trillion won from 50 trillion won in the first quarter of 2020. Throwing in 11 trillion won leveraged, this means about 100 trillion won remains readily available for equity market investment.