Investors who purchased short-term financial products issued by Homeplus staged a protest against the securities firm. The problematic product is an asset-backed short-term bond (ABSTB) issued with 'Homeplus's card payment bond' as the underlying asset. Investors are raising allegations of incomplete sales, claiming that the securities firm has never adequately disclosed the structure or risks of the product.
According to the financial investment industry on the 5th, individual investors held a protest rally the previous day in front of Hana Securities' Apgujeong branch in Gangnam, Seoul, raising allegations of incomplete sales. Hana Securities sold 250 billion won worth of short-term bonds to individuals through retail channels out of the 600 billion won worth of Homeplus short-term financial products issued.
The ABSTB is a product issued with Homeplus's card payment bond as the underlying asset. It is a short-term bond that secures cash by transferring accounts receivable that Homeplus must pay to the card company after purchasing partner company products with a payment card as collateral to the securities firm and selling it to investors.
Investors participating in the protest are questioning Hana Securities' use of the term 'Homeplus promissory note' when selling the ABSTB product. Investors argue that Hana Securities mainly employed a non-face-to-face sales method using text messages and did not sufficiently explain the complex structure or risks of the product.
Investors are urging the securities firms that incompletely sold financial investment products, similar to the Lime and Optimus incidents, the Discovery incident, and the Hong Kong equity-linked securities (ELS) incident, to take voluntary compensation actions.