PSE Stock Market Online Accounts Reach 1.26M in 2022

In 2022, there were 1,258,907 more online stock market accounts, an 8.6% increase. The average amount of an online transaction increased by 33.2 percent to Php 46,236.40 from Php 34,701.80 in 2021, despite the relatively slow rise of online accounts compared to prior years.

While the number of online accounts increased by almost 100,000 last year, the number of non-online accounts fell by 7,156, to 453,827. As a result, there were 1,712,734 stock market accounts registered in total in 2022, an increase of 5.7 percent from the 1,620,017 accounts registered in 2021.

PSE President and CEO Ramon S. Monzon said, "The growth in accounts may have been subdued in 2022, but I expect an uptick in numbers again with the foray of new stock brokerage firms in the online trading space and the upcoming rollout of stock investing features in finance apps." ​He added, "The total number of stock market accounts was also affected by the clean-up of dormant accounts done by the trading participants." In accordance with Republic Act No. 9160, the Anti-Money Laundering Act, the aforementioned clearing out of dormant accounts was carried out.

Over 98.0 percent of all stock market accounts were held by local retail investors, who also owned the majority of the accounts. 1.9 percent of all stock market accounts were owned by institutions, and 1.7 percent by overseas investors.

Retail Investor Profile

In 2022, there were 50.2 percent more female investors, according to the Stock Market Investor Profile (SMIP) Report. 51.0 percent of online accounts are owned by female investors, while the remaining accounts are owned by their male counterparts.

In the same year, there was an increase in the number of accounts held by investors between the ages of 30 and 44. From a 33.9 percent share in 2021, investors in the 30- to 44-year-old age range now hold about half of retail accounts. Investors between the ages of 45 and 59 made up 20.7% of accounts, followed by those between the ages of 18 and 29 with 18.7% of accounts, and those 60 and older with 10.8%. Similar to total retail accounts, ownership of online accounts was broken down by age, with the 30 to 44 age group accounting for the highest percentage (55.7%) of online accounts. Following, investors aged 18 to 29 registered a 20.8 percent share. The age group of 60 and over owned 5.0 of the internet accounts, while the 45- to 59-year-old age group controlled 18.4% of them.
​
53.5 percent of retail accounts and 72.9 percent of online retail accounts were held by investors who earn less than PHP 500,000.00 annually. The shares of retail accounts and online retail accounts held by people with yearly incomes between Php 500,000 and Php 1 million were 25.6 percent and 13.6 percent, respectively. 20.9 percent of retail investors and 13.6 percent of online investors have annual incomes over PHP 1 million.
​
For employment status, the retail investor base remained predominantly locally employed. 75.3% were locally employed, 7.4% were unemployed, 6.8% were self-employed, 5.6% were OFWs, 3.8% were retired, and 1.1% were students.

​Location-wise, Metro Manila continued to have the highest percentage of retail investors (81.5%), followed by Luzon (10.7%%), Visayas (3.7%), and Mindanao (2.5%). 1.7 percent of retail investors were foreign investors. Chinese, American, Japanese, Korean, and Taiwanese investors made up the majority of foreigners in the local market.