韩国计划9月起加强高息ELS监管：券商需及时向投资者发出本金损失警告

The Odaily Planet Daily reports that South Korean financial regulators plan to strengthen oversight of structured products such as ELS starting next month, requiring brokerages to issue warnings to investors when products approach the knock-in threshold for principal loss, and to re-evaluate product design and sales when market conditions change and risks clearly escalate.

According to reports, South Korea's stock market has recently experienced significant volatility, but retail investors' appetite for high-risk investments has not noticeably cooled. After regulatory tightening on single-stock leveraged ETFs, some investment has shifted toward equity-linked securities (ELS) offering high "coupon" yields. Data from the Korea Financial Investment Association shows that ELS sales in South Korea reached 3.5 trillion Korean won in July, hitting a new high in over three years since April 2023, with ELS products based on Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix stocks leading the growth.

Analysts believe that behind investors' pursuit of high yields lies optimism about the AI chip cycle and the future performance of semiconductor leaders. Although Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix share prices have rebounded recently, they remain more than 22% below the all-time highs set in June. Some investors believe that growth in HBM (high-bandwidth memory) demand, along with both companies' expanded shareholder return programs, could reduce the risk of further downside. (Bloomberg)