Recently, as the domestic stock market has surged, the investor deposit (the funds held in a brokerage account for stock transactions) is also accumulating. Securities firms are rolling this deposit to earn some revenue, but the fees returned to investors remain low. Last year, financial authorities proposed measures to encourage an increase in deposit usage fees, but they appear to be ineffective.
According to the Korea Financial Investment Association on the 14th, as of the 9th of this month, the investor deposit stands at 65.1957 trillion won. After fluctuating around the 50 trillion won range until the end of May, the investor deposit surged over 10 trillion won in a month as the domestic stock market rose, surpassing 70 trillion won on the 1st of this month. It is the first time in three years and six months that the investor deposit has exceeded 70 trillion won since 2022.
The investor deposit refers to the money that investors put into a brokerage account for stock transactions, acting as a kind of standby fund for the stock market. Securities firms entrust the investors' deposits to Korea Securities Finance for management and earn revenue from this.
As this year's investor deposits have grown significantly, it is expected that the revenue from deposit management by securities firms will also increase greatly. For the second quarter of this year, the management yield of major securities firms is mostly around 3%.
As a result, investors have expressed dissatisfaction with the deposit usage fee rate staying at 1%. Considering that the revenue from deposit management is around the mid-3% range, it is pointed out that the share returned to customers is too low.
According to the Korea Financial Investment Association, since the beginning of this year, the deposit usage fees of major securities firms have been frozen at 1%. For the second quarter of this year, the deposit usage fees of Samsung Securities, DAISHIN SECURITIES, Shinhan Investment Corp., Korea Investment & Securities, and Toss Securities are all maintaining at 1%.
Some securities firms have actually lowered their deposit usage fee rates. DAISHIN SECURITIES, which had the highest deposit usage fee rate of 2% among major securities firms, announced that it will lower it to 1.75% starting on the 14th of this month. KB Securities (1%) and MERITZ Securities (0.6%) have also reduced their fees this month.
By securities firm, Samsung Securities has a deposit usage fee rate of 1% if the deposit is over 500,000 won, and 0.1% if it is less. If simply considering the difference between the usage rate and management yield (3.62%), securities firms are collecting about 2.62-3.61% in interest.
Earlier, the Financial Supervisory Service mandated disclosures of deposit usage fee rates and management yields to induce competition among securities firms to raise deposit usage fees. At that time, it was revealed that major securities firms only returned 20% of the revenue from deposit management to investors, leading to criticism and prompting the authorities to intervene.
Securities firms are stating that it is difficult to raise deposit usage fee rates in a phase of interest rate freeze. Additionally, there are claims that there are not as many investors using general stock accounts where low usage fees are applied, unlike before.
An official from a securities firm noted, "In a phase of declining market interest rates, the management yield inevitably decreases, and the deposit usage fee rates also decline accordingly," adding, "Recently, investors often use comprehensive asset management accounts (CMA) with relatively higher interest rates rather than general stock accounts where deposit usage fees apply."