South Korea has launched a boom in underage stock buying: primary school students rushed to open accounts, and the number of stockholders increased eightfold

South Korea’s stock buying craze is unstoppable! A 45-year-old office worker surnamed Kwon recently opened a securities account for his son, who is in the fifth grade of elementary school. However, it is not that he wants to help the child invest, but that his son is clamoring to try playing stocks. Information released by the authorities today (26th) shows that as of the end of last year, 769,624 minors held stocks in South Korean listed companies, more than eight times the 98,612 people in 2019.

According to the Korean media "JoongAng Ilbo", a man surnamed Kwon revealed that he was originally worried about whether his children who were still primary school students were suitable for investing in stocks, but later he felt that instead of completely prohibiting it, it would be better to cultivate children's financial concepts and teach them how to invest correctly. He is currently reading and studying with his son, and picking stocks together.

"Samsung Asset Management", a subsidiary of Samsung Group, released the "Mastering ETFs in One Week" instruction manual on the 16th of this month, which introduced the concept and structure of ETFs in the form of a children's textbook; South Korean financial application Toss launched a simulated investment service for children and teenagers, and currently has more than 1 million users.

However, information obtained by South Korean Congressman Kim Sang-hoon shows that the balance of margin financing and securities lending for investors under the age of 20 was 120 million won (approximately NT$2.81 million) in January this year, and increased to 200 million won (approximately NT$4.68 million) by the end of June. For minors with no income, this method of borrowing from securities companies is quite dangerous. South Korea’s financial management agency has begun to promote relevant legislation and will prohibit minors from engaging in margin trading transactions in the future.

Statistics from the South Korean Economic Education Association found that 39 states in the United States require high school students to complete personal finance courses before they can graduate, which include financial thinking, money management, savings and investment, credit and debt, risk management and insurance. Therefore, South Korean experts also recommend that domestic financial education be included in school curricula.