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By Anna J. Park
A total of 1,136 cases of errors in local securities companies' home trading services (HTS) and mobile trading services (MTS) have been reported over the past five years. Mirae Asset and Korea Investment topped the list for resultant financial harm inflicted on consumers.
This is according to data submitted by the Financial Services Commission (FSC) to independent lawmaker Yang Jung-suk. The data tracks 29 local securities firms' errors reported since 2017, amounting to aggregated financial damages of 26.8 billion won ($19.3 million).
Mirae Asset, the biggest player in the industry, is estimated to have inflicted the highest amount of harm ― 7.6 billion won ―, due to the error cases of their HTS and MTS services during the five-year period, followed by Korea Investment's four billion won, Samsung Securities' 1.5 billion won, Kiwoom Securities' 1.1 billion and NH Investment's 100 million won.
Out of all the cases reported, only 81 percent of them were found to have compensated impacted investors.
"It is a shocking truth to know that hundreds of errors took place in either HTS or MTS trading platforms of local brokerage firms every year, while every second carries a significant importance to traders," lawmaker Yang said. "In particular, the fact that three out of the country's top five largest securities firms reported such errors for five consecutive years shows how poorly the local brokerage sector's stock trading platforms are operated," she added.
A total of 10 companies ― DB Financial, NH Investment, Kyobo, Daishin, Meritz, Samsung, Yuanta, Eugene, Kiwoom and Hanwha ― have reported cases of erroneous transactions for five consecutive years.
The lawmaker continued to criticize them saying that some of the firms, notably Heungkuk Securities and DAOL Investment, do not even have specified rules on compensation to consumers in such cases.
"The financial authority is urged to immediately come up with measures to prevent the recurrence of these types of damages inflicted on consumers," the lawmaker stressed.
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