Meritz Securities has carried out a capital-reserve reduction after approving the measure at a temporary shareholders’ meeting on September 28. The company said the move would flexibly secure dividend resources under the Commercial Act, but did not disclose the amount or specific capital-reserve items involved. Market interpretations have linked the transaction to funding shareholder returns because the brokerage held ₩2.9056 trillion in retained earnings at the end of June. Its capital surplus was ₩1.8253 trillion, including ₩1.6217 trillion in stock issuance premiums and ₩201.6 billion in gains from treasury-stock disposals, while capital stood at ₩818.9 billion and legal reserves at ₩273.5 billion. Article 461-2 of the Commercial Act permits reductions when capital reserves and legal reserves exceed 1.5 times capital. Based on the June figures, that threshold was approximately ₩1.2284 trillion against combined reserves of about ₩2.0988 trillion, implying a theoretical excess of roughly ₩870 billion if the entire capital surplus were eligible. Because Meritz Securities is wholly owned by Meritz Financial Group, investors are watching whether the reduction will increase dividends to the parent and support shareholder returns at the holding company. Meritz Securities reduced ₩600 billion in capital reserves in 2022 and transferred it to retained earnings, followed by dividends of ₩280 billion in 2023, ₩194.7 billion in 2024 and approximately ₩222.9 billion in 2025. Meritz Financial Group separately reduced its capital reserve by ₩600 billion in 2022 and ₩2.15 trillion in 2023, then carried out reduction-based dividends in 2024 and 2025 totaling ₩689 billion. Chairman Cho Jung-ho, who holds more than 50% of the group’s shares, received approximately ₩362.6 billion during that process. Revised tax rules now exempt major shareholders of listed companies up to their share acquisition cost, while excess amounts face rates from 15.4% to 49.5%. A Seoul Regional Tax Office tax audit of Meritz Securities in May renewed attention on the group’s earlier distributions, although the National Tax Service said it could not confirm individual audit details.