113 IT System Failures at Major Securities Firms in 3 Years... Customer Losses Exceed 7.3 Billion Won

19,055 Customers Affected; 6.99 Billion Won in Compensation Paid
Kiwoom Securities' Compensation Exceeds Half of Total at 3.8 Billion Won
Over Half of IT Incidents Caused by Program Errors

It has been revealed that over 100 IT system failures have occurred at major domestic securities firms over the past three years, affecting around 20,000 customers. The total financial damage has exceeded 7 billion won.

According to data provided by Assemblyman Park Jun-tae of the People Power Party, a member of the National Assembly's Political Affairs Committee, obtained from the Financial Supervisory Service on October 3, a total of 113 IT system failures occurred at 10 comprehensive financial investment companies with equity capital of 3 trillion won or more between 2024 and August of this year.

The total number of affected customers was counted at 19,055, and the total amount of damage reached 7,329,230,000 won. Actual compensation payments amounted to 6,989,410,000 won.

The streets of Yeouidaro, Seoul, densely populated with securities firms and financial institutions, are brightly illuminated. Photo by Jinhyung Kang

By company, Kiwoom Securities paid the largest amount of compensation at 3,801,600,000 won, accounting for more than half of the total compensation. This was followed by Korea Investment & Securities with 1,204,520,000 won, Samsung Securities with 839,870,000 won, and Meritz Securities with 593,770,000 won.

This year, Korea Investment & Securities provided the largest compensation, paying 1,182,080,000 won, which accounted for 64.3 percent of the total. In March, a surge in transaction volume caused some customers to be unable to check their account balances via the Mobile Trading System (MTS) due to a system disruption.

The causes of the failures were most frequently program errors, with 58 cases (51.3 percent), followed by external factors at 31.9 percent, system malfunctions at 15.9 percent, and human error at 0.9 percent.

After a series of IT system failures, the financial authorities convened a meeting in March with executives responsible for IT at the securities companies to instruct a review of their incident response systems.

Assemblyman Park stated, "IT system failures at securities firms are an issue that undermines the stability and reliability of the capital market," adding, "Effective measures are needed to encourage preemptive prevention and investment in IT infrastructure."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.