Shinhan Investment Corp. mistakenly directed clients regarding listed index funds (ETFs) to those being delisted, and a transaction delay issue subsequently arose. Not only Shinhan but also other major securities firms have recently encountered various errors. There are concerns that the trust in the capital markets is being undermined by the operators themselves.
On the 28th at 4 p.m., Shinhan Investment Corp. informed its clients that "Since rights to overseas stocks have arisen, please refer to the transactions," stating that the ARK Innovation ETF would be delisted on the 31st (local time). The ARK Innovation ETF is a product managed by Cathie Wood, known in Korea as "money tree sister," under ARK Investment.
However, the information was inaccurate. The ARK Innovation ETF is not being delisted but is moving from the New York Stock Exchange to the Chicago Exchange. After realizing the mistake, Shinhan Investment Corp. sent a correction message to clients at 4:30 p.m. The company stated, "The transactions of the ARK Innovation ETF remain unchanged," and apologized for the confusion.
On the morning of the following trading day, the 31st, a delay occurred in transaction completion inquiries for stocks, ETFs, and other instruments via Shinhan Investment Corp.'s Mobile Trading System (MTS) and Home Trading System (HTS). Many users experienced inconvenience as speed orders and bid orders faced delays in real-time execution.
This day marked the initiation of trading services on the Alternative Trading System (ATS) main market (from 9 a.m. to 3:20 p.m.) by Shinhan Investment Corp. Delays in execution services were observed from the very first day of participation in ATS main market transactions.
A representative from Shinhan Investment Corp. noted, "There were delays in the market quotes and transaction inquiries on some screens, but the transactions themselves were conducted properly," adding that it was "an error unrelated to ATS." The representative also mentioned that the earlier notification error related to the ARK Innovation ETF did not lead to actual investor losses since the U.S. stock market was closed at the time (4 p.m. on the 28th).
Even if the scale of the damages is minor, investors express dissatisfaction. This is due to the repeated errors occurring at major domestic securities firms. At Toss Securities, there were three incidents of transaction delays, stock information inquiry errors, and stock price notifications incorrectly sent during the month of March alone.
In early March, Mirae Asset Securities and Kiwoom Securities experienced delays in stock transaction inquiries and market quote issues. During a similar period, Korea Investment & Securities faced issues with Nasdaq transactions due to problems with the systems of local brokers. The Financial Supervisory Service has commenced monitoring these securities firms.
In February, MERITZ Securities made an error by failing to properly reflect the merger ratio (30 to 1) between Headma and Miglobal. As a result, the stocks of Miglobal held by investors appeared to be inflated 30 times in their accounts.
Even the Korea Exchange experienced errors. On the 18th, a system failure occurred in the securities market, freezing the operation of all securities firms' HTS for 7 minutes, preventing stock price checking and order execution. It was the first time since the unified launch of the exchange in 2005 that all transactions of the KOSPI were halted on the regular market.
Financial authorities have started inspections on the exchanges following the securities firms. The FSS side stated it would look into potential legal violations and seek measures to prevent recurrence.