South Korea's 115 asset management companies posted a 56.8 percent on-year jump in first-quarter net profit largely driven by an increase in commission income, government data showed Wednesday.

Their combined net profit for the three months ended March 31 soared to 138.8 billion won ($117 million) from 88.5 billion won a year earlier, the Financial Supervisory Service said in a statement.

"Institutional investors injected more of their capital into equity-linked funds offered by local asset management firms in the first quarter amid record low rates. They left the operation of their funds fully in the hands of asset management firms, helping the firms earn more in commissions," an FSS official said.

The country's key policy rate stands at an all time low of 1.50 percent.

The asset managers' collective commission earnings reached 464.4 billion won in the January-March quarter, up 16.2 percent from 399.7 billion won a year earlier, the statement said.

Non-operating losses fell to 100 million won from 20.5 billion during the same period, also helping the quarterly bottom line, it said.

"We are closely monitoring financially less stable asset management firms to avoid any hefty losses for investors," he said. (Yonhap)