South Korean banks' grip on the local finance market has been weakened since the 2008 global financial crisis due to protracted low interest rates, with insurers stepping up their dominance of it, data showed Wednesday. In the first half of the year, the ratio of banks' assets to the total in the local financial market reached 70 percent, down 9 percentage points from 79 percent at the end of 2008, according to data by Nonghyup Economic Research Institute.