Korea's forgotten fortune: $1.1 bil. in shares left unclaimed
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Nearly 1.5 trillion won ($1.1 billion) worth of shares held by the Korea Securities Depository (KSD) remain unclaimed by some 26,000 shareholders, data showed Thursday.
According to data released by Rep. Han Min-soo of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea, the KSD held 800.84 million unclaimed shares worth a combined 1.47 trillion won as of the end of August.
Unclaimed shares typically arise when shareholders fail to claim shares issued through rights offerings, bonus issues or stock dividends.
Shareholders may be unaware of the newly issued shares or miss notifications after changing their addresses. In such cases, the shares are held by the KSD or other designated transfer agents until their rightful owners claim them.
The value of unclaimed shares rose by about 26.4 billion won in the first eight months of this year, from 1.44 trillion won at the end of last year, when 763.54 million shares remained unclaimed.
The number of shareholders with unclaimed shares also increased by 931, from 25,349 at the end of last year to 26,280 as of August. The figure included 22,526 individual shareholders and 3,754 corporate shareholders.
The largest unclaimed holding by an individual shareholder stood at 644,247 shares, valued at 70.67 billion won. Among corporate shareholders, the largest unclaimed holding totaled 42.23 million shares, worth 211.14 billion won.
Over the past five years, the KSD has returned a total of 278.3 billion won worth of shares to their rightful owners through its annual campaign to locate shareholders with unclaimed shares, according to the data.
As part of the campaign, the KSD mails notices to shareholders at their current addresses, which it verifies through the Ministry of the Interior and Safety.
In 2025, however, notices were sent to only 9,492 shareholders, fewer than half of the 25,349 shareholders with unclaimed shares as of year-end.
Han called for more proactive outreach efforts, including text message notifications sent in cooperation with the country's three major mobile carriers.
"We need to review whether the current notification methods and claim procedures are adequate," Han said.