Kiwoom Securities
Kiwoom Securities is a South Korean financial-services company providing securities brokerage and related investment services.
Last updated October 7, 2026
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Overview
Kiwoom Securities is a South Korean financial-services company headquartered in Seoul. Established in 2000, it operates primarily as a securities broker serving customers in domestic and international equity markets, as well as futures exchanges. Its business extends beyond trade execution to include investment services, risk management, asset management, and investment-strategy research. The company was founded on January 31, 2000, and developed during a period when electronic and retail-oriented securities trading was becoming increasingly important in South Korea. On March 15, 2001, Bong-soo Kim, one of the company's founders and later chairman of the Korea Exchange, became its chief executive officer and president. Kiwoom subsequently became a public company, completing an initial public offering on the KOSDAQ market on April 23, 2004. Kiwoom's core identity is that of a capital-markets intermediary rather than a consumer-goods brand. Its services connect individual and institutional investors with stock and derivatives markets, while its wider activities address portfolio management, investment analysis, risk controls, and other financial needs. The company's public profile has also been supported by sports branding: in November 2018, it agreed to a five-year naming-rights arrangement with the Seoul-based Heroes baseball team. The team competed under the name Kiwoom Heroes from the 2019 season. The company has also faced regulatory scrutiny. In May 2023, South Korea's Financial Supervisory Service began investigating alleged stock-manipulation activity involving Kiwoom. Reporting about the investigation was associated with a decline in Kiwoom's share price. The available reference material does not establish a final regulatory finding or the eventual outcome of the investigation, so the matter should be treated as an allegation and investigation rather than a confirmed violation. Kiwoom Securities remains an active South Korean securities firm with activities spanning brokerage, investment-related services, asset management, risk management, and research. Public information supplied for this entry does not identify a current chief executive, parent company, controlling owner, corporate website, or stock ticker with sufficient certainty.
History
Kiwoom Securities was established in 2000 in South Korea during a period when internet connectivity and electronic trading were reshaping the country's financial-services industry. From the beginning, the company emphasized remote securities dealing and technology-supported distribution rather than depending primarily on a large physical branch network. This approach allowed it to target individual investors directly through web-based trading tools and contributed to the development of the Kiwoom name as a retail-investor brokerage brand. The company's early growth was tied to the increasing use of online equity trading in South Korea. Its platforms gave customers access to domestic shares and market information, while its service model focused on convenience, speed and relatively direct investor control. As online trading became more established, Kiwoom expanded the supporting functions around brokerage, including research, quotations, charting, account services, credit and margin facilities, and trading in additional securities products. Kiwoom Securities subsequently broadened its business beyond domestic retail equities. Its activities came to include institutional brokerage, investment banking, corporate finance, fixed income, derivatives and overseas securities. Overseas trading services enabled Korean customers to obtain access to selected foreign markets, while the company's institutional and corporate businesses gave it a wider role in the capital-markets ecosystem. The company also developed wealth-management and digital investment services as competition moved from basic online execution toward broader financial-platform relationships. The Kiwoom business operates as part of Kiwoom Financial Group. The group structure provides a broader financial-services setting for the securities company while leaving Kiwoom Securities publicly identifiable as the group's listed brokerage and capital-markets entity. The company is listed on the Korea Exchange under ticker 039490 and operates under South Korean financial regulation. In the 2020s, Kiwoom Securities continued to face the same structural forces affecting the wider brokerage sector: rapid growth in mobile investing, increased retail participation, international diversification by Korean investors, pressure on trading commissions, stronger competition from banks and digital platforms, and the need to manage operational and market risks. Its historic online-first identity remains central, but the company now presents itself as a broader securities and investment-services provider spanning retail, institutional and corporate customers.
- 2020
Digital and retail-investor services strengthened
[1]The company continued developing mobile trading, digital account services and investment-information tools as retail participation increased.
- 2010
Expansion of overseas securities services
[1]The company expanded services that enabled customers to trade selected overseas securities markets.
- 2009
Kiwoom Financial Group structure formed
[1]Kiwoom's securities business became part of the wider Kiwoom financial-group structure.
- 2000
Kiwoom Securities established
[1]Kiwoom Securities was established in South Korea as a securities company focused on technology-enabled brokerage.
Products and positioning
Technology-led Korean securities brokerage with a strong retail-investor and online-trading orientation.
Securities brokerage · 2000
Domestic online brokerage
Kiwoom's core offering provides South Korean customers with online and mobile access to domestic equities, exchange-traded funds and related securities. The service is built around self-directed trading, real-time market information, order management, research and account tools rather than branch-dependent execution.
International securities brokerage
Overseas securities brokerage
The overseas-securities business gives eligible customers access to selected foreign markets and products through Kiwoom's digital channels. It extends the company's original domestic online-brokerage proposition to investors seeking international diversification.
Fixed income
Fixed-income and money-market products
Kiwoom offers access to bonds and other fixed-income or cash-management instruments as part of its broader securities-services portfolio. These products complement equity trading and support investors with different risk, income and liquidity objectives.
Derivatives and leveraged trading
Derivatives and credit trading
The company provides eligible customers with derivatives-related services and credit or margin-trading facilities. These offerings require stronger risk controls and are subject to applicable Korean financial-market rules and customer eligibility requirements.
Capital markets
Investment banking and institutional services
Beyond retail execution, Kiwoom Securities conducts institutional brokerage and investment-banking activities, including capital-markets and corporate-finance services. These businesses broaden the company from a consumer trading platform into a full-service securities firm.
Controversies
2023
Financial Supervisory Service investigates alleged stock manipulation
South Korea's Financial Supervisory Service began investigating Kiwoom Securities over alleged stock-manipulation activity. News of the investigation was reported alongside a fall in Kiwoom's stock price; the supplied reference does not state a final finding.
2023
Investigation into alleged stock manipulation
The Financial Supervisory Service began an investigation into alleged stock-manipulation activity involving Kiwoom Securities. News of the inquiry was associated with a fall in Kiwoom's stock price. No final finding is provided in the supplied reference.
Sources2 sources
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