Securities Industry Listening to the "Customer Voice"

Ahead of the Financial Consumer Protection Act Enforcement on the 25th,
Strengthening Communication through Customer Panel System,
Reflecting Opinions on Overall Financial Company Management from Product Launch to Service Composition

[Asia Economy Reporter Ji-hwan Park] The securities industry is focusing on strengthening communication with customers through active operation of customer panel systems. Along with the full enforcement of the Financial Consumer Protection Act scheduled for the 25th, the plan is to establish a consumer-centered investment protection system by enhancing the role of customer panels.

According to the financial investment industry on the 24th, KB Securities is recruiting its third customer panel this year by the 25th to listen to customer opinions. The selected customer panels will perform tasks remotely such as △improving the pension non-face-to-face channel (MTS) △experiencing, evaluating, and proposing content for the Prime Club service.

Kiwoom Securities is also recruiting its 6th customer panel until the 6th of next month. Since this year, Kiwoom Securities has expanded the customer panel system from once a year to twice a year, in the first and second half. The selected panel customers deliver their opinions on Kiwoom Securities’ financial products and services, as well as suggestions related to financial consumer protection, through a dedicated email for customer panels over the course of one month. Daishin Securities, which recruited customer panels in April, is approaching the end of its six-month panel activities next month.

In addition, Shinhan Financial Investment, NH Investment & Securities, Mirae Asset Securities, and Korea Investment & Securities are also listening to diverse customer voices through the operation of customer panel systems.

The customer panel system serves as a communication channel that listens to customers’ voices regarding financial companies’ products and services. Panels provide the company with inconveniences experienced in service use or ideas for service improvement from the perspective of financial consumers. With the enforcement of the Financial Consumer Protection Act making customer feedback more important than ever, the purpose is to identify the causes of customer discomfort and reflect them throughout financial companies’ management, from product launches to service composition.

There are many cases of improved services reflecting customer panel opinions. A representative example is Mirae Asset Securities’ ‘Easy-to-Understand Product Description,’ introduced industry-first in June last year. Reflecting customer panel feedback that existing product descriptions were often complicated and difficult to understand, key information was indicated with images to enhance the visibility of product risk guidance.

A Kiwoom Securities official stated, "Based on customer panel suggestions, we adjusted the subscription start dates for equity-linked securities (ELS), which had been fixed on Mondays, according to types. We also send a URL via text message to immediately unlock securities account password after five errors, and are developing a system to provide an automatic installment purchase service for overseas stock exchange-traded funds (ETF)."