Recently, with continuous inconveniences for investors due to successive system failures at major securities firms, Toss Securities has shown high figures in both the frequency of system errors and the duration of malfunctions. It was noted that the number of people leaving the IT department at Toss Securities was much higher than that of other securities firms. There are criticisms that the focus on growth has led to relatively poor efforts in stabilizing the system.
According to data submitted to lawmaker Kang Myung-gu of the People Power Party by the Financial Supervisory Service on the 11th, a total of 26 system errors occurred at Mirae Asset Securities, Korea Investment & Securities, MERITZ Securities, Kiwoom Securities, and Toss Securities from January of last year to May of this year. These five securities firms have become controversial this year due to system incidents.
Of the total of 26 cases, half, 13 cases, were attributed to program errors or system failures. Human errors, such as developer mistakes, accounted for 4 cases, while external factors caused 9 cases.
Toss Securities was found to have recorded the longest duration and the most errors. It was belatedly confirmed that from December 13 to 17 of last year, a program error caused a disruption lasting 86 hours. The number of system failures was also the highest at 7 cases. The proportion of system and program errors accounted for 46% (6 cases) of the total 13 cases.
Toss Securities gained attention for growing rapidly to become the second-largest in the overseas stock market share, following Kiwoom Securities, just three years after its launch. However, it has been pointed out that the internal system is unable to keep up with the pace of growth, and issues such as IT staff turnover have contributed to an inadequate response system to system failures.
This year, 12 IT employees have left Toss Securities. During the same period, the numbers for Kiwoom Securities and Korea Investment & Securities were 4, and for Mirae Asset and MERITZ Securities, it was 2, reflecting figures 3 times and 6 times higher, respectively. A source familiar with the situation at Toss Securities noted, "Toss Securities' system relies heavily on a people-centered operational approach, and recently, it has become challenging to recruit additional staff, making the errors even more critical."
As of May this year, the number of customers at Toss Securities (7.01 million) is only about 8% less than Kiwoom Securities (7.69 million), but Toss Securities has 243 IT staff, nearly 30% fewer than Kiwoom Securities (342 staff). This large burden on the system relative to the workforce, despite similar customer sizes, is the reason cited for the repeated system failures.
Toss Securities stated that to prevent a recurrence of system failures, it plans to recruit specialized personnel equivalent to the number of IT staff who have left this year, and it has completed updates of servers and databases as well as equipment replacements this year. They also mentioned expanding the infrastructure enhancement and monitoring management as well.
A representative from Toss Securities said, "The proportion of IT staff is relatively high compared to competitors," adding, "This year's newly hired IT staff are more than twice the number of those who left during the same period."
Meanwhile, not only Toss Securities but also other securities firms are actively working to prevent the recurrence of system failures. MERITZ Securities, which saw a significant influx of customers last year through a 'zero commission' event, has expanded its server capacity this year and built a unified monitoring dashboard. They plan to separate domestic and overseas infrastructure next year.
This year, Kiwoom Securities has established verification systems and IT service management systems, while Korea Investment & Securities has supplemented its reboot manual and added final verification processes. Mirae Asset Securities announced that it has secured overseas backup brokers while replacing its ledger system server.