Dormant brokerage accounts top 50 billion won

By Kang Seung-woo

More than 50 billion won ($45.55 million) is lying dormant in inactive accounts at local brokerage houses, the country’s financial watchdog said Tuesday.

According to data from the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS), securities companies reported that the amount of money left untouched for more than six months totaled 51.8 billion won in 8.96 million accounts as of June 2010, according to the latest information available.

The FSS pointed out that compared with the past record, the money unclaimed by account holders has been rising ― in 2006, the amount in dormant brokerage accounts stood at 38.7 billion won in 6.09 million accounts.

Brokerages define inactive accounts as low-balance ones with less than 100,000 won, which have shown no activity such as deposits or withdrawals for more than six months other than posting interest or service charges.

The FSS estimates that inactive accounts, which have an more than 100,000 won, could also be substantial.

Inactive bank accounts and insurance money not withdrawn by customers for longer than five years can be claimed by banks or insurers. The financial institutions have typically used it to support less privileged people.

By contrast, brokerage accounts are “immortal,” which forces securities firms to maintain the “sleeper” accounts for a long period until account holders unfreeze them.

In this climate, the FSS plans to launch a campaign aimed at reducing the number of dormant accounts.

A program to notify whether a customer has inactive accounts will be spearheaded by the Korea Financial Investment Association in the second half of the year.

In addition, the FSS intends to make it mandatory for securities companies to check holders of dormant accounts along with the above-mentioned proactive campaigns.

“After the global financial crisis, many countries including the United States have come up with measures to confirm inactive account holders as part of efforts to protect clients,” the FSS said.

Together with the brokerage accounts, the banking and insurance sectors have also seen dormant accounts increase over the past four years.

Rep. Kim Jung of the Future Hope Alliance Party said that as of this April, trillions of won in accounts remained dormant during the past few years at domestic lenders and insurers.

Last year, Kookmin Bank had 20.4 billion won in inactive accounts, followed by the National Agricultural Cooperative Federation, better known as Nonghyup, with 16.8 billion won.

Korea Exchange Bank saw a stiff increase from 5.9 billion won in 2009 to 15.2 billion won in 2010.

Life insurers’ unclaimed money was 733.1 billion won in 2010, while the amount from non-life insurers was at 69.6 billion won last year.

증권사 소액 휴면 계좌 잔고 500억원

6개월 동안 매매거래 없이 증권사에서 잠자고 있는 10만원 이하 소액 휴면계좌의 잔고가 500억원을 넘어섰다.

24일 금융감독원과 금융투자협회, 예탁결제원에 따르면 지난해 6월말 현재 증권사의 소액 휴면계좌는 896만개로 잔고는 518억원에 달한다.

이는 2006년 3월말 609만 계좌, 잔고 387억원에서 각각 47.1%, 33.8% 늘어난 수치다.

업계에선 예탁재산평가액이 10만원을 넘는 휴면성 증권계좌와 잔고도 상당 수준에 달할 것으로 보고 있다.