Overseas investment boom leaves retail investors with heavy losses: FSS

Securities firms have posted record-high brokerage fee income from overseas stock trading as retail investors increasingly turn to foreign markets, but rising volatility has left about half of those investors posting losses on overseas equities, the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) said Friday. Against this backdrop, the financial watchdog said it will promptly escalate its reviews of overseas investment sales practices at brokerage firms into full-scale on-site inspections. It vowed to take tough measures, including the suspension of overseas stock business, if unlawful or improper conduct, such as deceptive marketing or insufficient risk disclosure, is identified. The FSS released interim results from its reviews of overseas investment practices, which have been underway since Dec. 3 at major brokerages and asset managers. The findings showed that brokerage commissions from overseas stock trading at the 12 largest securities firms totaled about 1.95 trillion won ($1.3 billion) during the January-November period, marking an all-time high and more than tripling from 581 billion won a