Japan's Online Trading Accounts Up 20% at 775,000 by End-March
By Hanabusa Midori
Tokyo, April 17 (Bloomberg) -- Nomura Securities Co., Daiwa
Securities Co. and E*Trade Securities Co. continued to dominate
Japan's online stock trading business as the industry grew by 20
percent in March for the second consecutive month.
The number of brokerage accounts for online stock trading in
Japan increased to 775,000 in March, according to a Bloomberg
News survey of 41 out of 48 brokerages that offer the service.
After an easing of rules last October on stock trading
commissions, the number of accounts being opened by individuals
has swelled. March was the third month that the number of
accounts grew by more than 100,000.
``While an active stock market certainly provided the
backdrop, the increase in accounts is due to growing public
recognition of online brokers, and the increasing number of
companies that offer Internet trading via mobile phones,' said
Takeo Omura, deputy general manager of corporate planning at
Daiwa Institute of Research.
Individual investors are opening online accounts with
increasing frequency as money is being moved from savings
accounts that yield less than 0.1 percent interest to securities.
Daiwa expects the number of online accounts to reach 2.2 million
by the end of this year, and continue increasing to about 4.1
million in 2001 and 5.5 million in 2002.
In March, 41 of the 48 brokers surveyed added 127,744 new
online accounts, bringing the total to 774,518. Of the 41 that
responded to the March survey, 24 did so on condition their names
won't be identified with their figures. In February, 41 brokers
reported a combined number of 647,000 accounts.
Top Ten
The top ten brokerages were Nomura, Daiwa, E*Trade, Nikko
Beans Securities Co., Monex Securities Co., DLJdirect-SFG
Securities Co., Imagawa-Misawaya Securities Co., Nippon Global
Securities Co., Matsui Securities Co. and Orix Securities Co.
While there's been no change in the make-up of the top ten
since October, in March Nikko Beans moved up to fourth place and
Nippon Global to No. 8. Outside the top-ten, Japan Online
Securities Co., a venture funded in part by trading house Itochu
Corp. that began offering stock trading in February, inched up to
take 12th place from its debut at No. 13.
Nomura, with 187,780 accounts, and Daiwa, with 155,000,
remained in a group apart at the top. E*Trade and Nikko Beans
didn't disclose their data. Monex said it had 51,310 accounts,
DLJdirect-SFG 47,351, Imagawa-Misawaya 37,745, Nippon Global
30,000, Matsui 28,660 and Orix 19,162.
E*Trade, Nikko Beans, Monex, DLJdirect-SFG, Matsui, Orix and
Japan Online specialize in online trading. Their combined share
of accounts in March was 38 percent, little changed from 39
percent of the total in February.
E*Trade Securities is a joint venture between No. 2 U.S.
online broker E*Trade Group Inc. and Japan's Softbank Corp.
DLJdirect-SFG was set up by the online broker unit of U.S.
investment bank Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette Inc. and the
Sumitomo Bank Ltd. group.
Monex counts Sony Corp. and U.S. hedge funds among its
shareholders. Nikko Beans is the online broker unit of Nikko
Securities Co.
Market Share
In the U.S., online trading accounts for one out of six
stock trades. In Japan, where online trading is still relatively
new, lack of public data makes it difficult to gauge how much
trading is actually conducted over the Internet or automated
telephone systems.
Of the 48 surveyed, 15 respondents said they executed a
combined 800,000 orders online, while the combined amount of
trading at 12 respondents was about 927.4 billion yen ($8.8
billion) in March. In the same period, individual stock trades
conducted on the Tokyo Stock Exchange amounted to 9.647 trillion
yen.
The ratio of active accounts, defined as accounts with
assets, or those that were used to trade at least once in the
past year, was an average 66 percent at 12 survey respondents.
Client assets held in such accounts totaled 2.6 trillion yen at
12 respondents as of the end of March.
Internet Trading Accounts:
Brokerage End-March End-Feb. % change Start Date
============================================================
Nomura 187,780 146,541 +28% Jan. 1997
Daiwa 155,000 125,000 +24% April 1996
E*Trade ---- 70,000 ---- Oct. 1999
Monex 51,310 45,691 +12% Oct. 1999
DLJdirectSFG 47,315 40,563 +17% June 1999
Imagawa-Misawaya 37,745 31,935 +18% Jan. 1997
Matsui 28,660 27,685 +4% May 1998
Nippon Global 30,000 24,000 +25% June 1999
Orix 19,162 16,931 +13% May 1999
Iwai 10,000 9,600 +4% Aug. 1998
Japan Online 11,217 8,724 +29% Feb. 2000
New Japan 6,069 5,325 +14% Aug. 1998
Wako 4,220 3,738 +13% Aug. 1998
Dai-Ichi ---- 2,343 ---- May 1998
Towa ---- 2,237 ---- Sept. 1998
Tokai-Maruman 2,248 1,983 +13% Feb. 1998
Okasan 2,282 1,946 +17% Aug. 1998
Aizawa 3,003 1,783 +68% Oct. 1999
Universal ---- 729 ---- April 1999
Century ---- 347 ---- March 1999
Dojima-Kanto 200 158 +27% April 1999
Imamura 43 32 +34% Oct. 1999
============================================================
Sub-total: 596,290 567,291
Total End-March (41 companies): 774,518 accounts
Total End-Feb. (41 companies): 647,000 accounts
*Note: The total figures were arrived at by adding figures for
brokerages that provided data on condition of anonymity. The
March and February figures both cover 41 out of 48 surveyed.
*Note: From April, New Japan and Wako merged to become Shinko
Securities Co. Dai-Ichi, Taiheiyo, Towa and Universal merged to
form Tsubasa Securities Co. and its online broker unit eWing
Securities Co.
Brokerages that don't publicly disclose online account data: Ando
Securities Co., Ark Securities Co., Century Securities Co.,
Chiyoda Securities Co., Cosmo Securities Co., Dai-Ichi Securities
Co., E*Trade Securities Co., Hinode Securities Co., Hiraoka
Securities Co., HIS-Kyoritsu Securities Co., Kankaku Securities
Co., Kokusai Securities Co., Maruhachi Securities Co., Marusan
Securities Co., Meiko-National Securities Co., Mito Securities
Co., Niigata Securities Co., Nikko Securities Co., Nikko Beans
Securities Co., Nippon-Kyoei Securities Co., Nissan Securities
Co., Star Futures Securities Co., Taiheiyo Securities Co., Tokyo
Securities Co., Tokyo-Mitsubishi Personal Securities Co., Towa
Securities Co., Toyo Securities Co., Universal Securities Co.,
Utsumiya Securities Co., Sakura-Friend (formerly Yamatane)
Securities Co., Yutaka Securities Co. |
