Korea Investment Holdings Chairman Kim Nam-goo. (Photos: Korea Investment & Securities)

Korea Investment and Securities (KIS) topped one trillion won in individual retirement pension (IRP) reserves, KIS announced on April 12.

“This is the result of a combination of an inflow of IRP funds into securities firms due to a boom in the stock market and trade convenience, discounts on fees and high IRP returns of KIS,” said an official of KIS.

KIS’s IRP reserves had grown at an annual average rate of 37 percent since 2013 until the end of last year. This year, 229 billion won was added to the IRP reserves by the end of March.

The figure was a 30.1-percent increase from the beginning of the year, the highest IRP reserve increase among large IRP management companies with IRP reserves of more than 1 trillion won.

Korea Investment and Securities announces on April 12 that its IRP reserves surpassed one trillion won.

The annual average return of KIS IRPs in 2020 stood at 7.57 percent, the best performance among large companies, as the average return hit 6.17 percent in the Korean securities industry, according to the Financial Supervisory Service’s Integrated Pension Portal.

In addition, KIS does not receive commissions from customers.

As of the end of February, ETFs and listed REITs for subscribers of KIS IRPs totaled 363, the largest number in the IRP industry.

“Recently, more and more customers are joining or moving to IRPs with high returns and enhanced convenience of securities companies,” said Park Jong-gil, head of the Retirement Pension Division. “We will steadily support customers’ retirement lives by providing various products and raising their returns.”

In addition, KIS announced on April 14 that it has signed a strategic alliance agreement with DeepSearch, a financial data analysis company.

DeepSearch is a fintech startup established in 2013. It has big data and machine learning technologies. KIS plans to jointly develop a cloud computing-based corporate sales platform by combining DeepSearch solutions based on big data and its internal systems and systematize internal data and boost work efficiency through the platform.

KIS plans to continue to sharpen its competitiveness in the data platform business in the future such as the joint development of this platform.

It is also planning to expand cooperation with DeepSearch such as the development of advanced AI-based services for customers.

“In a digital environment where financial companies have to compete with technology companies, we have signed a partnership with DeepSearch to increase productivity and prepare for the future,” said Jung Il-moon, president of KIS.

“We will continue to make various efforts to provide advanced financial services to our customers in line with the digital era.”

In the meantime, KIS announced on April 14 that it will list 320 equity linked warrants (ELWs). ELWs give the right, but not the obligation, to buy an asset on or before the expiry date.

As they have strong leverage effects, investors can expect high returns with smaller amounts of money than directly buying basic assets.

KIS listed 136 index-type ELWs based on the KOSPI 200 Index and KOSDAQ 150 Index, and 184 ELWs based on stocks such as Lotte Chemical, SK Innovation, and LG Electronics.

KIS offers 1,881 ELWs including the 320 newly listed ELWs. This means that the company offers the largest number of ELWs among securities firms offering ELWs.

Information on ELW investment can be found on KIS’ ELW website. In addition to the market price table of stocks, visitors to the website can find various information that can help them invest better such as top pick stocks based on the previous day's closing prices, an expected price table for selected ELW stocks, and precautions for trading.

Moreover, investors can check closing stock prices and news at major overseas stock markets through TRUE ELW, a Kakao Talk channel about ELWs run by KIS.