KB Securities, Non-Face-to-Face Account Assets Surpass 30 Trillion Won... 50% Increase in 8 Months

Increase in MZ Generation Investments Effective... Overwhelming Proportion of Stocks in Assets

[Asia Economy Reporter Minwoo Lee] The asset size of customers who opened accounts non-face-to-face at KB Securities has surpassed 30 trillion won. It is analyzed that the increase in investment by the MZ generation (Millennials + Generation Z) was effective.

KB Securities announced on the 24th that the size of online customer assets has exceeded 30 trillion won. It has tripled in about 1 year and 4 months since it first surpassed 10 trillion won in May last year. After exceeding 20 trillion won in January this year, it has been rapidly increasing by 50% in 8 months.

KB Securities analyzed that the increase in investment by the MZ generation was effective. As of early this month, the number of individual customers of KB Securities was about 6.7 million, an increase of about 40% compared to 4.8 million at the end of September last year. During this period, the number of MZ generation customers surged 65% from 1.28 million to 2.11 million.

Also, among the 2.73 million newly opened stock accounts at KB Securities from April last year to this month, the MZ generation newly opened 1.31 million accounts, accounting for about half (approximately 48%). KB Securities explained, "In the past, stock investment was the exclusive domain of the 40s and 50s generation with abundant discretionary funds, but now it means that it has become a universal investment tool encompassing various generations."

As of this month, the online assets of the MZ generation amount to 7.5 trillion won, accounting for about 25% of the total online customer assets. This is an increase of about 5 percentage points from 20% in January last year.

Meanwhile, it was found that the MZ generation pays more attention to stocks rather than financial products such as funds or bonds, and more to overseas stocks than domestic stocks. Most of the 7.5 trillion won in online assets consists of stock assets. Financial product assets amounted to about 310 billion won.

Their stock assets consist of 5.2 trillion won in domestic stocks and about 1 trillion won in overseas stocks. Domestic stocks, like the 40s and 50s generation, showed a pattern of trading a mix of blue-chip stocks such as Samsung Electronics, HMM, Kakao, and highly volatile stocks, while overseas stocks traded a variety of stocks including highly volatile ones such as Tesla, GameStop, AMC ENTERTAINMENT, as well as stocks that had controversies such as short selling.

The composition of financial product assets was recorded as 240 billion won in Comprehensive Asset Management Accounts (CMA), 26.6 billion won in funds, 7 billion won in bonds, and 6 billion won in Equity-Linked Securities (ELS) and Derivative-Linked Securities (DLS). There was a high proportion of cash-like assets such as CMA, Repurchase Agreements (RP), and product deposits that allow frequent deposits and withdrawals. This suggests there is room to increase stock investment.

Ha Woo-sung, Head of Marble Land Tribe at KB Securities, said, "In a situation where the generational change of investment is blowing at KB Securities, we are striving to provide services tailored to the MZ generation's level, such as launching a Mobile Trading System (MTS) for beginner investors and lowering online trading fees for overseas stocks," adding, "We will continue to listen to customers and do our best to become a securities company that leads investment trends."

It should be noted that investments in stocks and other financial products may result in principal loss, and in the case of overseas stocks, losses may occur due to exchange rate fluctuations.