NH Investment & Securities Introduces Per-Share Trading for Overseas Stocks

Brokerages are intensifying their digital service competition, focusing on enhancing customer convenience. While in the past the focus was primarily on fee discounts or improving the usability of mobile trading systems (MTS), the trend now is to expand service scope to overseas stock trading, AI-powered investment information, short-form video platforms, and digital asset-related systems. This move aims to create new customer touchpoints in line with the diversification of individual investors' investment targets and the changing ways financial information is consumed.

NH Investment & Securities has launched a service allowing immediate trading of Japanese stocks at the current market price in single-share units, as well as a market order service for Hong Kong stocks. Previously, Japanese stocks were mainly traded in 100-share lots, making it difficult to invest with small amounts. For Hong Kong stocks, market orders were restricted, often preventing trades at desired times. With these new services, NH Investment & Securities enables trading of major Japanese stocks in single-share units and introduces an automatic best-price-finding market order system for Hong Kong stocks, significantly enhancing trading convenience for investors. NH Investment & Securities also unveiled 'N2, SIGNAL,' an investment information video content series featuring the AI virtual persona 'Seo Ain.' This content optimizes research center professional investment reports into short, intuitive videos explained by an AI consultant, tailored for mobile environments.

Hanyang Securities has opened an official channel on the global short-form platform TikTok to target Generation Z. Expanding its reach beyond YouTube and Instagram to TikTok, it is building a multi-channel platform. On TikTok, which has a high proportion of users aged 10-20, the company aims to lower the psychological barrier to financial information through short and friendly content such as '20-second Economic News' and 'Market Briefs.'

Brokerages' digital competition is extending to the establishment of digital asset infrastructure. SK Securities has signed a business agreement with Edena Korea for digital asset financial business, planning to cooperate on tokenizing real-asset-backed (RWA) digital assets and building financial infrastructure. This initiative comes amid ongoing discussions about token securities regulation and signals a preparation for business models that distribute real assets like real estate and fractional investments on a blockchain basis. SK Securities is positioning token securities and fractional investment businesses as medium- to long-term growth engines, focusing on strengthening related infrastructure and risk management systems.

The competition among brokerages is expanding beyond simple order functions or fees to encompass investment information, content, and digital asset businesses. As individual investors' trading methods and financial content consumption habits evolve, digital competitiveness is emerging as a new differentiating factor for brokerages.