S.Korea toughens rules over cash-managing accounts

SEOUL, July 9 (Reuters) - South Korea will tighten supervision over cash-managing accounts provided by brokerage companies, a regulator said on Thursday, as concerns rise about heightened competition for banking services.

Under the move, the Financial Services Commission (FSC) will step up monitoring of cash management accounts' (CMA) marketing and risk management by introducing a certain ratio of cash assets at brokerage firms, the industry watchdog said in a statement.

Cash management accounts of securities houses have lured individual investors with higher yields in the past few years, and started money transfer services from July.

CMAs' outstanding value stood at a combined 39 trillion won ($30.54 billion) as of July 6, up from 30.7 trillion won at the end of December.

(Reporting by Kim Yeon-hee; Editing by Jonathan Hopfner)