Toss Securities to launch US subsidiary this year

Toss Securities, a brokerage arm under financial technology giant Viva Republica, announced Tuesday that it plans to establish a subsidiary in the US to explore further business opportunities in the country.

The US entity, a 100 percent-owned subsidiary of Toss Securities, will be founded within this year under the name of Toss Securities Americas. The establishment was approved through a board meeting of the brokerage unit.

Toss Securities Chief Financial Officer Kim Kyung-soo is to serve as the inaugural head of the new entity. Before joining Toss in June 2023, he worked at US semiconductor equipment manufacturer Applied Materials and the state-run Korea Development Bank.

Through the newly launched subsidiary, Toss Securities aims to expand cooperation with securities firms and asset managers in the US, the company explained.

The US expansion comes as Korean investors are increasingly active in the US stock market. After introducing real-time fractional US share trading in 2022, Toss Securities has maintained some 20 percent market share in Korea's portion of stock transactions on the US market.

Led by the growing trade volume of US stocks, the total overseas shares traded through Toss reached 68.56 trillion won ($50 billion) last year. Earlier this month, the company launched a new service to allow investors to trade overseas bonds.

"Based on the two-year experience of working with US partners, Toss Securities pushed the launch of Toss Securities Americas to encourage close cooperation and find new businesses," Toss Securities CEO Kim Seung-yeon said.

"Through the US subsidiary, we will push for diversification of sales by incorporating new opportunities across financial and non-financial sectors.”

By Im Eun-byel(silverstar@heraldcorp.com)