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[Alpha Biz=(Chicago) Reporter Kim Jisun] Domestic securities firms are accelerating the reduction of offline branches.
According to the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) on the 19th, the number of branches (including sales offices) of 48 domestic securities firms stood at 856 as of the end of March. It was 900 at the end of March last year, but it has decreased by 44 in a year.
In particular, the number of securities firms' branches has continued to decline since COVID-19. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of local securities firms reached 1,064 in 2019, but the number of local securities firms fell to less than 1,000 in 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic began.
Samsung Securities Co. had the largest drop in branches. As of the end of the first quarter of 2020, Samsung Securities had 63 branches, but as of the end of the first quarter of this year, it decreased by 52.4% (33) to 30. During the same period, large securities firms such as ▲ Korea Investment & Securities (16) ▲ NH Investment & Securities (9) ▲ KB Securities (5) ▲ Mirae Asset Securities (2) also reduced their branches.
The sharp drop in face-to-face transactions due to the digitalization of the financial environment is cited as the cause of the merger of stock market branches. Since March 2016, securities firms have been allowed to open non-face-to-face accounts, allowing investors to open non-face-to-face accounts without having to visit branches in person.
The industry predicts that the number of branches of domestic securities firms will decrease further thanks to the rapid increase in the number of non-face-to-face channel users such as mobile trading systems (MTS).
AlphaBIZ 김지선(stockmk2020@alphabiz.co.kr)
