Amid widening market volatility on looming rate hikes at home and abroad, investors have been taking to money market accounts to park their cash.

One of such accounts by Standard Chartered Bank Korea, the local unit of the London-based banking group, offer investors not only a place to park cash, but also interest rate up to 1.7 percent a year before tax. South Korea’s current base rate is 1.5 percent.

Subscribers to the bank’s “SC My Zoom Account” are offered a maximum of 1.5 percent yield a year for deposits from at least 1 million won to 1 billion won. It comes with no additional conditions and the deposits can be withdrawn at any time. 

The bank said that with such “favorable” interest rates and benefits, the product has been well received by customers since its launch in October 2017, recording some 2 trillion won worth of deposits made in the following four months.

To further promote the product, SC Bank Korea said those opening new My Zoom accounts by June 29 will be given an option of an additional 0.2 percentage point on its interest rates.

(consnow@heraldcorp.com)