The surge in the KOSPI this year has intensified competition among brokerages to attract new investors and clients from rival firms.
According to data analyzed by Park Seong-hoon, a member of the National Assembly's Political Affairs Committee, 10 major brokerages conducted a total of 166 trading events aimed at customers from January to August this year.
Leading the pack, Korea Investment & Securities held 41 events, followed by Samsung Securities with 24, Kiwoom Securities with 21, KB Securities with 19, NH Investment & Securities with 17, and Meritz Securities with 16.
In terms of cash rewards, Kiwoom Securities topped the list with 11.32 billion won, closely followed by Meritz Securities at 11.09 billion won. Only Kiwoom and Meritz exceeded 10 billion won in rewards. Samsung Securities had the highest number of recipients, with 433,722 individuals benefiting from these trading events. The number of events held by these brokerages has steadily increased from 277 in 2022 to 333 in 2023, 365 in 2024, and 435 last year.
This year, while the domestic stock market has experienced unprecedented growth, the number of events and total rewards distributed by August have not yet reached last year's annual levels. However, Meritz Securities has shown remarkable growth, doubling its events from eight last year to 16 by August this year.
The number of recipients also surged from 3,583 last year to 361,783 this year, an increase of approximately 101 times, while the total rewards rose from 82.13 million won to 11.09 billion won, a growth of about 135 times. Among the 10 brokerages, Meritz Securities was the only one to surpass last year's annual levels in terms of event count, number of recipients, and total rewards.
The events this year have primarily targeted new and dormant customers, offering cash and coupons to encourage them to transfer assets from other brokerages. Notably, the 'transfer of assets from other brokerages' events often provided greater benefits as the transferred asset size increased. Some brokerages even offered substantial rewards worth hundreds of thousands of won for transferring significant amounts of stock.
Park Seong-hoon stated, "While competition that broadens investor choices is necessary, excessive competition driven by cash and prizes should not cloud investment decisions. Financial authorities need to examine whether this reward competition is encouraging unnecessary account openings, asset transfers, and excessive trading."
* This article has been translated by AI.
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