CFD Trading Balance Approaches 2.8 Trillion KRW... Kyobo, Kiwoom, Samsung, Meritz Lead Rankings

The outstanding balance of Contracts for Difference (CFD), identified as the epicenter of the SG Securities-driven crash, has reached 2.8 trillion KRW.

According to data submitted by the Financial Supervisory Service to the office of National Assembly member Yang Jeong-suk of the Political Affairs Committee on the 10th, as of the end of March, the CFD outstanding balance of 13 securities firms was 2.7697 trillion KRW, an increase of 444.3 billion KRW from 2.3254 trillion KRW at the end of last year. CFDs are over-the-counter derivative transactions that settle the difference in price without holding the actual investment product, aiming to profit from price fluctuations of the underlying asset.

The CFD outstanding balance recorded 1.2713 trillion KRW at the end of 2019, 4.7807 trillion KRW at the end of 2020, and 5.405 trillion KRW at the end of 2021.

As of the end of March, the securities firm with the largest CFD outstanding balance was Kyobo Securities with 618 billion KRW, followed by Kiwoom Securities (557.6 billion KRW), Samsung Securities (350.3 billion KRW), Meritz Securities (344.6 billion KRW), and Hana Securities (340 billion KRW).

Eugene Investment & Securities (148.5 billion KRW), DB Financial Investment (140 billion KRW), and Korea Investment & Securities (112.6 billion KRW) also had outstanding balances exceeding 100 billion KRW.

Additionally, the CFD trading volume of the 13 securities firms from January to February this year reached 4.066 trillion KRW. By firm, Kyobo Securities had the highest CFD trading volume in January-February at 1.0835 trillion KRW, followed by Kiwoom Securities with 728.5 billion KRW, Eugene Investment & Securities with 632.9 billion KRW, and Meritz Securities with 436.6 billion KRW.

The once hot CFD market rapidly cooled as the Financial Supervisory Service began inspections of Kiwoom Securities and securities firms blocked new CFD account openings.

Following the recent SG Securities-driven crash, Kiwoom Securities, Kyobo Securities, Samsung Securities, Korea Investment & Securities, Shinhan Investment Corp., and DB Financial Investment have taken measures to block new CFD account openings. All related events have also ended. Hana Securities has also stopped opening new CFD accounts, and KB Securities has limited the trading limit to 1 billion KRW per person.

The financial authorities plan to prevent a recurrence of the SG Securities-driven stock price crash through improvements to the CFD system.

※ This SG Securities-driven stock price crash has sounded an alarm for the capital market order. Readers’ reports will be a great help in uncovering the truth. We welcome any reports regarding investment damage cases, suspicions of stock price manipulation and asset concealment by Ra Deok-yeon’s side, insider details on the large-scale sales by major shareholders of Dow Data and Seoul Gas, or any other information (jebo1@asiae.co.kr). Asia Economy will do its best to establish a transparent capital market order.

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