증권회사의 고객보호의무와 손해배상책임

Securities field, by its nature, requires specialized and unique legal treatment. Securities are intricate instruments and involve many risks. The public rely on broker-dealer's experts and honesty and put trust and confidence on them in purchasing or trading the securities. Here it is necessary for the broker-dealers to provide special care to protect their customers. In soliciting and selling securities the broker-dealers should disclose necessary and sufficient informations for their customers to evaluate the risks and make informed decisions when they solicit and sell securities. They should advise suitable securities in view of financial resources and investment objectives of the customers and should not engage in churning. Broker-dealers deal with customers as principal or agent and they are under duties not to defraud customers and fiduciary's duties in case of agency transactions according to fraud provisions of Civil Code and Criminal Code. In applying those principles to the securities transactions, it is necessary to take the special aspects of securities into consideration. On the other hand, the Securities Transaction Act and the Rules under it have special provisions for protections of customers by broker-dealers. However it's not clear whether those provisions provide civil remedy to customers in the case of violation by broker-dealers. Those questions can be decided on the bases of principles of Civil Act and in consideration of special aspects of securities. The broker-dealer's duty to protect their customers has been evolved from ethical precept to law and is still in developing stage. The broker-dealers have to do business on more stringent standards than any other industries for fair and honest trading.