Taishin Yuanta Securities Merger Leads to APP Abnormalities; FSC Launches Investigation

Taishin Securities and Yuanta Securities, subsidiaries of Taishin Shin Kong Financial Holding, officially merged on April 6, with Taishin Securities as the surviving company. After the merger, the two securities firms will have 79 business locations across Taiwan, including 55 branches and 24 co-selling offices. The merged Taishin Securities' market share will significantly jump from 16th to 4th place. However, some users reported that on April 7, the first trading day after the merger, both Taishin Securities and Yuanta Securities' apps experienced connectivity issues.
Wang Hsiu-ling, Secretary-General of the Securities and Futures Bureau (SFB) of the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC), stated today that the merger record date for the two securities firms was April 6, and the first trading day after the merger was April 7. After the market opened on the 7th, Taishin Securities reported a major incident to the FSC, mentioning that due to the replacement of the backend accounting system, a surge of users during trading hours caused some accounting system busyness, leading to abnormal login conditions for customer apps. According to regulations, a major incident report must be submitted by April 16.
Wang Hsiu-ling pointed out that the stability and security of a securities firm's trading system are paramount. The SFB received scattered investor feedback via phone and public mailbox, but the number was not large. They will further understand the extent of investor impact.
Wang Hsiu-ling further explained that the FSC is primarily concerned with two points: first, to clarify the cause of the system failure, understand whether previous stress tests were complete, and if there were any internal control deficiencies. The Taiwan Stock Exchange has been asked to dispatch professional IT personnel for inspection. The inspection results will be sent to the SFB, and if internal control violations are found, appropriate action will be taken based on the severity. Second, for customer complaints from securities users, Taishin Securities has been required to provide dedicated assistance. If users encounter problems, they can directly contact their broker, and the firm must provide assistance promptly.
SFB officials added that in past securities mergers, individual apps usually continued to operate for some time. This time, both Taishin Securities and Yuanta Securities apps continued to provide services, but because the backend used Yuanta Securities' system, the large volume on the first day might have caused some users' pages to show loading circles. Some Yuanta Securities users might have also thought they needed to download the new Taishin Securities app after the merger but found they could not log in after downloading it.
Media inquired whether users might have placed orders that the system did not receive, leading to subsequent trading disputes. Officials stated that if disputes indeed arise, the company must face them. Currently, the content of the complaints does not involve major disputes, and Taishin Securities has also handled customer complaints appropriately. (Editor: Yang Lan-hsuan) 1150409