On-demand and fixed-term notes offer up to 4.0% annually

New individual customers, branch-only special product also available

Meritz Securities headquarters [Meritz Securities]
Meritz Securities headquarters [Meritz Securities]

Meritz Securities announced Tuesday it will launch a short-term financial product known as a promissory note — a debt instrument the brokerage issues on its own credit.

The lineup comprises three products: an on-demand type, a fixed-term type and an offline special edition. The on-demand note is open only to individual customers and carries an annual interest rate of 2.50 percent. The fixed-term note offers individual customers between 2.80 and 4.00 percent per year, and corporate customers between 2.70 and 4.00 percent, depending on the term selected.

Both the on-demand and fixed-term products are available for subscription on business days from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. The minimum investment is 1 million won ($756), and customers may set the amount down to the nearest won.

To mark the launch, Meritz Securities is also offering a six-month special product for new individual customers at an annual rate of 5.0 percent. The special product is available exclusively at offline branches. Per-customer investment ranges from a minimum of 30 million won to a maximum of 100 million won, with total sales capped at 10 billion won.

Promissory notes are short-term instruments with maturities of up to one year, issued on a brokerage's own credit by firms designated as comprehensive financial investment business operators with equity capital of at least 4 trillion won. The products pay agreed returns even for a single day's deposit, and customers may set any maturity within the one-year limit.

"We designed the product to maximize competitiveness for terms of six months or longer," a Meritz Securities official said. "We will continue to roll out various events and special products to provide benefits to our customers."

The Financial Services Commission voted at its 16th regular meeting on Sept. 23 to designate Meritz Securities as a comprehensive financial investment business operator with equity capital of at least 4 trillion won and to grant it a short-term finance license.

Meritz Securities' equity capital stood at 8.35 trillion won as of the end of June. Because promissory notes may be issued up to 200 percent of equity capital, the firm has secured additional fundraising capacity of up to about 16.7 trillion won.


moon@heraldcorp.com