[Brokerage Firm Year-End Review - Next Year's Strategy] Management Keywords Revealed Through Organizational Restructuring... Focusing on 'WM and Retirement Pension'

Strengthening Retail Business... Empowering WM Division
Series of Organizational Reforms to Capture Retirement Pension Market
Proven by Performance... Likely to Retain Key Securities Firms' CEO Positions

The key themes of organizational restructuring carried out by major domestic securities firms to target the market next year are summarized as strengthening the asset management (WM) sector for high-net-worth individuals and enhancing competitiveness in the retirement pension market. This is interpreted as a move to actively target the rapidly growing retirement pension market and diversify revenue portfolios by focusing on services and sales related to ultra-high-net-worth individuals.

NH Investment & Securities' core focus in the 2025 organizational restructuring is 'strengthening the retail business.' In particular, it has focused on enhancing services for the ultra-wealthy, whose influence in the market is growing. To this end, it established the Retail Innovation Headquarters, which oversees retail business change management. The Retail Innovation Headquarters was created to provide digital services to ultra-wealthy clients who have entrusted NH Investment & Securities with assets of 3 billion KRW or more, and to strengthen face-to-face services. While face-to-face services for the ultra-wealthy typically include performances and lectures by external speakers, NH Investment & Securities has attempted to differentiate itself by offering economic stories told by a former head of the Research Center. Oh Tae-dong, former head of NH Investment & Securities' Research Center, has moved to the position of head of the Premier Blue Division, where he delivers comprehensive economic knowledge related to investments.

An NH Investment & Securities official explained, "Simple asset management is an area where PBs (Private Bankers) are already performing well, but recently, the ultra-wealthy want to understand not only investments but also macroeconomics, microeconomics, and the overall economic situation." He added, "When the Premium Blue Division held economic seminars for the ultra-wealthy, satisfaction was higher than ever."

Mirae Asset Securities also established a PWM (Private Wealth Management) division to strengthen competitiveness in the WM sector. Under the Investment Strategy Division, it created the Wealth Tech Headquarters to enhance face-to-face services tailored to customer demand using big data. It plans to focus more on face-to-face transaction services for ultra-high-net-worth individuals. A Mirae Asset Securities official said, "The top 10% of customers hold more balance than all other customers combined, accounting for 90% of Mirae Asset Securities' assets, so their influence is significant." He added, "We plan to provide comprehensive consulting services such as tax and gifting in line with the preferences of ultra-high-net-worth individuals who favor face-to-face transactions over non-face-to-face ones."

Meritz Securities expanded its retail organization to make the retail sector a core growth pillar. First, the existing Retail Headquarters was elevated to the Retail Division to strengthen the organization. Additionally, it newly established the PIB Center and Retail Strategy Office under the Retail Division. Notably, similar to NH Investment & Securities, Executive Director Lee Kyung-soo, who was previously head of the Research Center, moved to become head of the Retail Division. He oversees the entire retail division and concurrently serves as head of the Private Investment Banking (PIB) Center dedicated to ultra-high-net-worth individuals under the retail division.

Korea Investment & Securities is expected to announce its organizational restructuring for next year within 20 days, aligned with the personnel and organizational restructuring of Korea Financial Group. Like this year, Korea Investment & Securities is likely to focus its efforts on the WM division and the Global Business Headquarters next year. Samsung Securities, the original retail powerhouse, showed its commitment to strengthening corporate finance by selecting two out of five promoted managing directors from the IB division in this year-end personnel reshuffle.

Alongside the WM division, fierce competition among securities firms is expected in the retirement pension market next year. This is due to the implementation of the 'retirement pension in-kind transfer (physical transfer)' system from October 31, which allows retirement pension subscribers to switch providers without selling existing products. Leading securities firms in the retirement pension sector, including Mirae Asset Securities, Korea Investment & Securities, Samsung Securities, and Hyundai Motor Securities, have all conducted organizational restructurings focusing on their retirement pension headquarters to prepare for customer acquisition. According to the Financial Supervisory Service's Integrated Pension Portal, as of the third quarter of this year, Mirae Asset Securities had the largest retirement pension reserves in the securities industry at 27.3755 trillion KRW, followed by Hyundai Motor Securities (2nd place, 16.8082 trillion KRW), Korea Investment & Securities (3rd place, 14.4822 trillion KRW), Samsung Securities (4th place, 14.1110 trillion KRW), and NH Investment & Securities (5th place, 7.1866 trillion KRW). The size gap among the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th places is not significant.

Meanwhile, there are expected to be no changes in the heads of major domestic securities firms except for Shinhan Investment Corp. Korea Investment & Securities, Mirae Asset Securities, Samsung Securities, and NH Investment & Securities all underwent generational changes with new presidents at the end of last year or early this year, and their successful debut performances have been highly evaluated. Although the terms of Kim Seong-hwan, president of Korea Investment & Securities, and Kim Mi-seop and Heo Seon-ho, representatives of Mirae Asset Securities, expire in March next year, the industry widely expects their reappointment to be smooth, given that they have demonstrated their capabilities as leaders through their performance, barring any unforeseen incidents.

Additionally, Kim Jong-min, Vice President and CEO of Corporate Finance & Management at Meritz Securities, was promoted to president in the executive personnel reshuffle on the 12th and has just assumed the top position. Kim Seong-hyun, head of Corporate Finance (IB) at KB Securities, and Lee Hong-gu, head of Asset Management (WM) at KB Securities, both of whom are nearing the end of their terms this month, recently succeeded in their reappointments. Their reappointment terms are for one year.

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