Securities Firms' Interest Income Nears 1 Trillion Won Amid 'Bittou' Craze... Trading Fees Also Double Up

Domestic Stock Trading Commission Income Doubles, Overseas Triples
Securities Firms Celebrate Bonuses...First Appearance of Major Firms Surpassing Average Annual Salary of 200 Million Won

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[Asia Economy Reporter Minwoo Lee] Last year, the 'Donghak Ant Movement' frenzy brought big smiles to securities firms. As 'debt investment'?buying stocks on borrowed money?surged, securities firms earned about 1 trillion KRW in interest alone. Stock trading commissions also soared, doubling domestically and tripling overseas compared to the previous year.

According to the Korea Financial Investment Association on the 21st, the interest earned by 57 domestic securities firms from individuals' margin trading (borrowing money from securities firms to invest in stocks) last year totaled 997 billion KRW. This is the largest amount since statistics began in 2009, marking a 33.4% increase from 747.3 billion KRW the previous year.

The surge was driven by a sharp increase in individual 'debt investment' last year. The average daily balance of margin trading was 11.1205 trillion KRW in 2018, dropped to 9.6787 trillion KRW in 2019, then sharply rose again to 13.1464 trillion KRW last year. On December 24th last year, it peaked at 19.454 trillion KRW.

By securities firm, Mirae Asset Daewoo earned the most with 151.5 billion KRW. Following were Kiwoom Securities (147.9 billion KRW), Samsung Securities (140.9 billion KRW), and NH Investment & Securities (124.1 billion KRW), each exceeding 100 billion KRW.

Debt investment continues to increase this year as well. After surpassing 20 trillion KRW in margin loan balance for the first time in January, it reached a record high of 21.903 trillion KRW on the 18th. This represents an increase of about 2.5 trillion KRW just this year.

As individual investors massively jumped into stock investment through the 'Donghak Ant Movement,' securities firms' commission revenues also surged. Commissions from domestic stock trading reached 5.6647 trillion KRW, more than doubling (108.4%) compared to the previous year. Overseas stock trading commissions also skyrocketed to 544.6 billion KRW, a 233.3% increase, driven by the growing number of 'Seohak Ants' investing in foreign markets such as the U.S.

With the stock market boom, securities firms' employees' salaries also rose. According to last year's business reports from securities firms, the average annual salary per employee at eight large securities firms with equity capital over 4 trillion KRW (Mirae Asset Daewoo, NH Investment & Securities, Korea Investment & Securities, Samsung Securities, KB Securities, Meritz Securities, Hana Financial Investment, and Shinhan Financial Investment) was 152.96 million KRW. This is an 18% increase from 130.05 million KRW the previous year.

Meritz Securities, known for its strong performance-based culture, was the first among large firms to surpass an average annual salary of 200 million KRW. Last year's average salary was 231.21 million KRW, a 29% increase from 178.96 million KRW the previous year.

Some small and medium-sized securities firms even exceeded an average annual salary of 300 million KRW. This was because they mainly hired experienced professionals and had a small number of high-salary positions, resulting in higher average pay compared to large firms. Bukook Securities' average salary last year was 361.24 million KRW. KTB Investment & Securities (220.99 million KRW) and Kakao Pay Securities (203.47 million KRW) also exceeded an average annual salary of 200 million KRW.

However, despite the high average salaries, salary disparities by job function can exceed 100 million KRW. A securities firm official explained, "It is clear that securities firms made significant profits from the Donghak Ant Movement last year. Accordingly, performance bonuses also increased, but due to the industry's characteristics, differences by job category likely widened even further."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.