Yi Whan-woo is a Korea Times journalist primarily covering finance. He writes in-depth articles on macroeconomy and financial markets and previously covered sports, politics, diplomacy and inter-Korean affairs, among others. Feel free to contact him at yistory@koreatimes.co.kr.
Meritz’s bungled online stock trading adds to security concerns
The headquarters of Meritz Securities in Seoul / Courtesy of Meritz Securities
By Yi Whan-woo
Meritz Securities had suffered a technical problem in brokering U.S. stock trade, adding to concerns over repeated system failures reported in the domestic securities sector, according to industry officials, Wednesday.
The brokerage arm of Meritz Financial Group had trouble taking online orders from customers to buy and sell stocks on the U.S. market right after the market opened at 10:30 p.m. Tuesday (KST).
The company worked on troubleshooting and the service was normalized about an hour later.
“The problem has been full resolved and orders for U.S. stock trade are being processed normally,” Meritz Securities said.
“We deeply apologize for any inconvenience caused, and will take compensational measures promptly for customers who are affected by malfunction of the service."
Despite its apology, industry officials expressed concerns in light of similar incidents recently. They cited a need for a comprehensive check-up on the online trading system across the domestic securities companies.
“Such a check-up may be especially crucial at a time when more investors are trading shares on the U.S. market,” an official said.
In early April, Kiwoom Securities reported trading errors on the mobile trading system and home trading system.
The cause of the problem was not fully identified. But it was believed to be linked to a surge in sales of domestic stocks over U.S. President Donald Trump’s announcement on reciprocal tariffs.
Additionally, the company’s trading system faced disruptions as a surge of orders flooded in during the impeachment ruling on now ousted President Yoon Suk Yeol.
The company restored the system and is compensating customers for missed investment opportunities.
Nevertheless, the incidents cast doubts on the safety and reliability of the domestic market’s online trading system, as they came less than month after the Korea Exchange (KRX) also suffered a system failure.
The country’s sole bourse operator, the KRX reported a trading halt of listed companies due to a technical glitch in March.
It marked the first time since 2005 that the trading of all KOSPI-listed shares had been halted.
The KRX explained that the problem was linked to calculation of excessive quotations for a certain company.