[News Space=Reporter seungwon lee] Toss Securities' Mobile Trading System (MTS) was paralyzed for approximately 17 minutes on the evening of the 14th, shortly after the opening of the regular US stock market, due to an error in stock and balance inquiry, blocking investors from trading. This outage, which occurred just as the Nasdaq index began to decline, comes just 12 days after a 30-minute order processing and execution halt on the 2nd, the first trading day of the new year, due to an overseas broker connection issue.

Error details and investor damages

From 11:37 PM on the 14th, for approximately 17 minutes, stock information and balance were not displayed on the MTS home screen, and for some users, the balance was displayed as '0 won' or a message saying, "The amount is temporarily not displayed due to a temporary issue."

This made it impossible to check holdings or place sell orders, leading to a flood of complaints from "Foreign retail investors" (traders who missed out on stop-loss opportunities when the Nasdaq index fell) in online communities. While the extent of the damage has not yet been determined, Toss Securities has promised to review compensation upon receiving complaints from customer service.

A series of system instabilities and past records at the beginning of the year

On the 13th, Toss Securities' AI news service incorrectly displayed positive news about a mining company with the same ticker as Powell Max (PMAX) on the bulletin board of the Nasdaq-listed company, causing a sharp rise and fall in its stock price. This led to three incidents over two weeks. Looking at past cases, Toss Securities ranked first among securities firms with nine MTS and HTS errors as of July 2023. In November 2024, the company paid approximately 123.35 million won in compensation for a 13-minute outage due to a U.S. telecommunications company error. Seven computer system errors also occurred in the first half of this year, sparking ongoing concerns about system stability.

Toss Securities' response and promise to prevent recurrence

Toss Securities attributed the issue to a "temporary impact during infrastructure work," and announced, "The issue has now been resolved, and customers experiencing inconvenience will be compensated upon contacting customer service." A Toss representative stated, "We are currently compiling a technical explanation and will do our best to strengthen our systems to prevent a recurrence." However, the specific scope of the damage and compensation criteria remain pending further confirmation, making restoring investor confidence crucial.

The aftermath of the bad news that broke amid warnings from financial authorities

This incident occurred immediately after Financial Supervisory Service Governor Lee Chan-jin requested marketing restraint on the 13th, pointing out the "risk of exchange rate and consumer losses due to increased overseas stock investment," and is expected to increase pressure on the industry.

A securities industry insider commented, "This case reveals the technological vulnerabilities of a rapidly growing platform, and fundamental solutions are urgently needed." Despite Toss Securities' growing share of US stock trading, a series of issues are undermining its image as a "foreign stock powerhouse."