South Korean securities firms'income from stock brokerage has almost halved in 7 years after cutting fees to woo retail investors disinterested by a stagnant run on the local stock market, data showed on Wednesday.

The combined brokerage commission income of local securities firms was estimated at 3.3 trillion won (US$3.06 billion) last year, a sharp drop from 6.6 trillion won in 2007, according to the data compiled by the Korea Capital Market Institute.

The comparable figures for 2012 and 2013 were 3.7 trillion won and 2.6 trillion won, respectively, the data showed.

The brokerage commission accounts for over half of their overall income, which includes income of sales of financial products, asset management and investment banking. In 2014, their combined commission income was estimated at 4.9 trillion won, also tumbling from 8.7 trillion won in 2007, data showed.

Commission income has remained depressed for the past few years due to low market turnover and prolonged pricing competition in an overcrowded brokerage market.

South Korean securities firms have been relying on traditional sources of revenue -- commissions and interest from lending to investors -- which in turn worsened their profitability amid a bear run in the local stock market.

"Last year, stock turnover increased slightly, but securities firms' stock brokerage business remained stagnant," said Park Yong-lin, a researcher at the institute.

Brokerages direly need to change their business portfolio to weather the aging society, low growth trend and low interest rates, the research said. (Yonhap)