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Photo courtesy of Yonhap News |
[Alpha Biz= Kim Jong Hyo] Advertorial-style articles that often cause serious investor confusion are virtually absent from Samsung Securities’ home trading system (HTS), thanks to a strict internal monitoring system that has been in place for more than 15 years, Alpha Biz has learned.
According to an Alpha Biz investigation on March 5, Samsung Securities has monitored media content displayed on its HTS since 2010, focusing particularly on detecting and removing advertorial-style articles. The task has been led by the company’s communications team, rather than the IT department that operates the trading platform.
A Samsung Securities official told Alpha Biz, “Advertorial articles often use sensational language that encourages speculative behavior or exaggerates facts, which can cause serious harm to investors. While the HTS itself is managed by the IT division, monitoring advertorial content has been strictly handled by the communications team.”
Since 2010—when advertorial-style content surged across online financial platforms—the firm has maintained a strict oversight system, issuing warnings or guidance to media outlets and content providers that attempted to distribute such articles through its HTS.
If problematic content continued to appear, Samsung Securities reportedly took stronger measures by completely blocking the news provider from the platform.
A senior executive at a company that supplies advertorial content to multiple brokerages—including Mirae Asset Securities and Korea Investment & Securities—said, “We don’t place advertorial articles on Samsung Securities’ platform at all. They even ask us to remove simple banner-style ads placed at the top or bottom.”
While the same provider reportedly generates hundreds of millions of won in monthly revenue by distributing advertorial content across brokerage platforms with high HTS news traffic, industry sources say such content is virtually nonexistent on Samsung Securities’ HTS.
Samsung Securities is also known as the only domestic brokerage firm that imposes sanctions—including potential removal—on media outlets or service providers that post advertorial content on its HTS, a policy that has helped improve investor satisfaction with the platform’s news services.
Han Chi-ho, a Ph.D. in public administration and economic commentator, said regulators should examine Samsung Securities’ approach. “Financial authorities should study the effectiveness of Samsung Securities’ advertorial elimination policy,” he said. “Brokerage firms operating investment platforms must take responsibility for removing advertorial content through clear guidelines if we want to prevent investor 피해 in an era aiming for a KOSPI 6000.”
Alphabiz 김종효 기자(kei1000@alphabiz.co.kr)
