Financial authorities have decided to check the stock trading system of local securities firms after Samsung Securities mistakenly paid out millions of shares to its employees as stock dividends.

Under an employee stock ownership plan, Samsung Securities had originally planned to pay dividends of one-thousand "won" to its employees.

However, the brokerage paid dividends of one-thousand "shares" on Friday after a worker processed the wrong figure. Tens of employees at Samsung Securities were found to have sold the stocks they received.

The nation's financial watchdog, Financial Supervisory Service (FSS), will look into local securities firms' internal system that identify and block those mistakes.

Amid growing public criticism of the case, the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) plans to hold a meeting of related agencies on Sunday afternoon to discuss problems at the securities firms' system and related measures.

Meanwhile, over 100-thousand people have signed an online petition requesting the presidential office to investigate local securities firms and abolish short selling.