Households’ spending on financial and insurance services, including stock trading commission fees, rose at the fastest pace in 24 years in the first quarter as the stock market rally boosted trading activity, central bank data showed Wednesday. According to data from the Bank of Korea (BOK) on households’ final consumption expenditures, spending on financial and insurance services totaled 25.1 trillion won ($17.7 billion) in the first quarter, up 2.44 trillion won, or 10.8 percent, from the previous quarter. The quarter-on-quarter increase was the largest since the first quarter of 2002, when the category posted a 21.4 percent increase. Real expenditures, which exclude inflationary effects, on the same services also rose 9.6 percent from a quarter earlier, marking the biggest increase since the first quarter of 2002. Expenditures on insurance and financial services include stock trading commissions, insurance service fees, bank transfer fees and credit card fees. The BOK said increased stock trading activity led to higher commission expenses, driving a sharp rise in overall spending on fi
