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Funding and approval remain unresolved
Mirae Asset Securities secured board approval on 29 October 2026 to acquire Sanko Securities, a Tokyo firm owned by Okasan Securities Group. The proposed consideration is about 47.6 billion won (about $35.5 million), according to a regulatory filing.
The buyer will be Mirae Asset Securities Holdings (USA) Inc., which is due to receive 12 billion yen (about $76 million) from its parent. Some of that funding will pay for the shares; the balance is intended for investment in Sanko after completion.
The final consideration will be set at closing, which requires regulatory approvals. Sanko's board has yet to approve the sale, and the filing allows for changes depending on its vote.
A registered route into Japan
Sanko trades stocks, bonds and other securities with its own capital. For the year ending March 2026, the Korea Times put Sanko's net profit at about 400 million won and its net assets at 39.1 billion won.
The deal comes as Japanese website traffic to retail FX and CFD brokers rose even while visits from Asia-Pacific fell. FM Intelligence recorded a quarter-over-quarter gain in Japan during Q3 2026. Overseas firms entering the market have used local subsidiaries: Interactive Brokers' Japanese business added tax-free NISA accounts in mid-2025, while Capital.com began recruiting a compliance head to pursue a Japanese licence in August 2025. M&A has been less common. Gaitame, owned by Swiss-listed Compagnie Financière Tradition, took over Livestar Securities' FX clients in 2020; SBI Holdings later bought the rest of Livestar, in the sector's first such deal in many years, as Finance Magnates reported.
| Measure | Reported figure |
|---|---|
| Proposed Sanko purchase | About 47.6 billion won (about $35.5 million) |
| Funding for the US subsidiary | 12 billion yen (about $76 million) |
| Japanese retail FX and CFD broker visits | 6.6 million in Q3 2026, up 18.5% quarter-over-quarter |
| Asia-Pacific broker visits | Down 33% over the same period |
| Japanese providers and active FX accounts | More than 150 providers; over 3 million accounts |
| Sanko net assets and net profit | 39.1 billion won; about 400 million won for the year to March 2026 |
| Mirae equity at the end of 2025 | 13.48 trillion won; the injection is about 0.75% |
| Mandatory disclosure threshold | 2.5% |
| Mirae's Sharekhan purchase | 480 billion won in December 2023 |
| Rakuten Securities accounts | More than 14 million in April |
| Account hijackings in Japan | Over 500 billion yen between March and May 2025 |
| Brokerages committed to mandatory multifactor authentication | 76 |
The integration question
Mirae is buying an existing registered firm rather than seeking a new Japanese registration, but the filing does not set out how it will combine Sanko's current trading operations with the planned retail business. Operators will need to establish what systems, workflows and customer records are in scope, and how those changes will be sequenced against closing and regulatory approval.
The filing also does not specify how the post-close investment will be allocated or what controls will govern new retail accounts. Those are questions for the operating plan: how will funding, reconciliation and reporting work across the parent, US subsidiary and Sanko, and how will the brokerage meet Japan's move towards mandatory multifactor authentication? The 12 billion yen injection is below Mirae's 2.5% disclosure threshold, but it still needs to be tracked alongside the acquisition and integration work.
Before the retail service is launched, the operating plan will also need to establish who owns the security and account-control changes across the acquired firm and the new business. With 76 brokerages committed to mandatory multifactor authentication after account hijackings worth over 500 billion yen between March and May 2025, what implementation scope, timing and reporting will apply to Sanko?
