Financial consumers have shown significant change in taking out loans and making deposits since the Bank of Korea took the first-ever "big step" of raising the key rate by a half of percentage point earlier this month.

According to the banking industry on Sunday, KB Kookmin, Hana and Woori banks sold 80 mortgage loans worth 19-point-three billion won between July 15 and July 21 with the interest rate capped for a certain period of time.

The banks had sold 51 such loans worth nine-point-three billion won for the whole year between July 15 of last year and July 14 of this year.

In addition, five major banks – KB Kookmin, Shinhan, Hana, Woori and NH Nongkyup – saw their combined fixed deposits reach 704-point-44 trillion won as of Thursday, up 19-point-35 trillion won from the end of June.

The installment deposits at the five banks rose by 499 billion won to 37-point-96 trillion won during the cited period.

The fixed and installment deposits at the banks soared by 19-point-85 trillion won in the first 20 days of July, more than tripling the figure for the previous month.