The financial watchdog said Thursday that investors can get up to 50 percent compensation for their losses incurred by misleading information given by a brokerage arm of a cash-strapped conglomerate.

The compensation rates were set at 15-50 percent, with an estimated 62.5 billion won ($60.9 million) for 12,441 investors, according to the FSS. Investors and Tongyang Securities must decide whether to accept the mediation within 20 days, although the FSS’s decision carries no legal binding force.

Tong Yang Group, the country’s 38th-largest conglomerate, had sold non-performing debts worth 2 trillion won through Tongyang Securities since 2007 in a bid to secure funds to rescue its ailing affiliates, even though the group knew it was collapsing and would be unable to repay maturing debts. (Yonhap)