Brokerages Revamp Apps, Launch AI Trading and Forge Kakao Alliances in Digital Asset Battle

Competition among South Korean securities firms is intensifying in digital finance. Mirae Asset Securities has expanded its app into an integrated platform that will eventually include digital assets. Daol Investment & Securities has launched a stock investment service that works through conversations with generative artificial intelligence. Korea Investment & Securities has struck a business alliance with the Kakao group to jointly develop digital-asset issuance and distribution services.

On Oct. 1, Mirae Asset Securities said it had renamed its mobile trading system, M-STOCK, as MAPS, short for Mirae Asset Portfolio Service, and turned it into an integrated investment platform covering stocks, bonds and coins. The move highlights a platform overhaul aimed at expanding into digital assets.

MAPS was first introduced in Hong Kong in June, with South Korea becoming the second market for the service. The home screen is divided into a Discover tab, which shows market trends and leading stocks, and a My Investment tab, which displays users' asset holdings. The company also added tabs with digital-asset market information and explanations of blockchain technology. It plans to fully integrate digital assets into the app once rules including the proposed Digital Asset Basic Act are in place. For now, users cannot trade digital assets on the platform. Over the medium to long term, the company plans to introduce an agentic wealth management service in which AI handles consultations, automated orders and portfolio diagnostics. The firm said it aims to build a model that goes beyond Robinhood's innovation.

Daol Investment & Securities officially launched a service on Oct. 1 that lets users invest in stocks through conversations with AI. Its MCP Trading service links brokerage accounts to generative AI chat interfaces such as ChatGPT and Claude. Users can check balances, view prices and place orders through conversation alone.

If a user types, "Summarize my returns on Samsung Electronics and buy 10 more shares," the system handles everything from checking performance to submitting the order request within the chat window. The service supports both domestic and overseas stocks and also provides portfolio risk diagnostics and sector concentration analysis. Every order must go through a preview and receive final customer approval before it is sent to an exchange. Security has been strengthened with a local execution model that works only on a customer's PC, and the service does not support fund transfers.

Korea Investment & Securities said on Oct. 1 that it had formed a digital-asset alliance with the Kakao group. The brokerage signed a strategic memorandum of understanding with Kakao, KakaoBank and Kakao Pay to jointly develop and market digital-asset issuance and distribution services. The agreement covers investment, remittance and settlement services using digital assets, the buildout of core infrastructure such as electronic wallets, and links between digital-asset custody and customer-facing services.

Korea Investment & Securities had been reviewing synergy models with KakaoBank in areas including electronic wallets, stablecoins and tokenized securities distribution. The latest agreement expands that cooperation across Kakao affiliates. Chief Executive Officer Kim Sung-hwan said the company would explore new possibilities for digital asset-based financial services by combining its financial expertise with the Kakao group's platform reach.

Securities firms' simultaneous push into the digital market reflects two converging trends: discussions on formalizing the digital-asset framework and the spread of generative AI. Firms are broadening their scope and upgrading services on the view that traditional stock brokerage alone is no longer enough to retain clients. Competition for digital leadership among brokerages is set to intensify further, an industry official said.

Kang Jin-kyu, Hankyung.com reporter josep@hankyung.com