🔥 Kiwoom Securities Between Interest Rate Competition and Year-End Benefits - 2026.10.20

Hey, it’s me, Onion~ 🧅 After watching the market for 30 years, I’ve learned that days when interest rates and events flare up all at once really make you sit up and take notice. Today, the competition over promissory note rates jumped out first, so let’s dig into that. 📊

Promissory Note Rate Competition Heats Up

Kiwoom Securities has launched a special three-month promissory note with a pre-tax annual yield of 5.8% ^[1]. Samsung Securities is offering 5.5% for the same term, so the two companies are going head-to-head on rates. Promissory notes are products with maturities of up to one year, issued by comprehensive financial investment business operators on their own credit, so regulators keep a close eye on this kind of competition. The article reported that authorities are monitoring whether the market is overheating ^[1]. This back-and-forth over rates—now that’s a real interest rate showdown. But rate competition is a double-edged sword, so how far it goes is the key variable.

Year-End Benefits Season Heats Up the Pension Savings Market

The customer side of the story is interesting, too. Kiwoom Securities announced on the 20th that it is running its “Pension Savings Year-End Benefits Festa” for pension savings customers through the end of the year ^[2]. Users who open a new pension savings account or transfer one from another company will receive benefits related to exchange-traded funds (ETFs) for one year ^[2]. The promotion is timed for the year-end tax deduction season and runs through December 31 ^[3]. Maeil Business Market also covered the same event ^[8]. Year-end promotions have always been kindling for attracting customers. But the available information doesn’t say how much money this event will actually bring in, so let’s just watch for now.

Sports Marketing and Characters Expand Customer Touchpoints

Kiwoom Securities sponsored the “Kiwoom Securities Tekken Stars Cup,” held at Freec Up Studio in Daechi-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, and the tournament wrapped up successfully on the 17th ^[4]. This was its first offline tournament sponsorship since signing an esports sponsorship deal, and was presented as a move to expand its collaboration with DRX into an in-person customer touchpoint ^[5]. Let’s look at the character side, too. According to the financial investment industry, its official character “KIUMA” has been expanding its customer touchpoints both online and offline just two months after its debut in August ^[6]. The horse-inspired character appears to be taking on a customer engagement role. A name like that, and already galloping along—bulls can’t help but feel their spirits rise. 🚀

Stocks and Green Cross Send Mixed Signals

Let’s also check the stock movement. Market data shows that Kiwoom Securities closed at ₩227,500(+2.02%) on October 19, then fell to ₩220,500(-3.50%) on October 20. The direction changed in just one day, so it looks more like a brief pause to catch its breath. Meanwhile, Yonhap News reported that Kiwoom Securities lowered its target price for Green Cross ^[7]. That’s a reported securities firm forecast, not a confirmed fact from the company. The article headline also mentioned that Green Cross’s COVID-19 treatment revenue plunged year over year, but the available information doesn’t say how Kiwoom Securities views that, so I won’t speculate. Watching the current trend, I’d like to ask whether the bullish scenario is still clearly alive, or whether this is just a brief breather.

Here’s What We’re Still Watching

To sum up, rate competition, year-end benefits, sports marketing, and expanded character touchpoints are all unfolding at once. The remaining variables are how far the promissory note rate competition will go under regulatory scrutiny, whether the pension savings promotion will translate into actual customer inflows, and whether the stock price will follow these developments. The more questions there are, the more interesting the game gets—absolutely! Let’s look for the answers together in the next installment. ☕