Korea FSC Forms Taskforce to Overhaul Settlement Infrastructure and Embed Blockchain
Key points
- South Korea's FSC launched a taskforce on 23 June to modernise securities settlement infrastructure, with blockchain and AI adoption as explicit goals.
- Vice Chairman Kwon Dae-young flagged a settlement-cycle roadmap due as soon as October, aimed at freeing trapped liquidity.
- The Korea Exchange opens an after-hours session from 14 September, with a pre-market potentially following by late 2027.
- DLT will be tested within existing custody and clearing rails rather than a parallel structure, under four guiding principles spanning trust, shareholder protection, innovation, and market access.
- Blockchain pilots are likely to appear in custody or tokenised-security flows before wholesale clearing moves on-chain.
South Korea’s Financial Services Commission launched a taskforce on 23 June to modernise the country’s securities settlement infrastructure, with blockchain and AI adoption as explicit goals. Vice Chairman Kwon Dae-young flagged a settlement-cycle roadmap due as soon as October, aimed at freeing trapped liquidity and lifting market efficiency.
The Korea Exchange will open an after-hours session from 14 September, with a pre-market potentially following by late 2027. The FSC framed the work around four principles: trust, shareholder protection, innovation, and market access, signalling that distributed-ledger technology will be tested within existing custody and clearing rails rather than in a parallel structure.
The October roadmap and the KRX trading-window extensions are the near-term watch points. Any shift to T+1 or instantaneous settlement will require collateral, liquidity, and margin systems to be re-engineered, and blockchain pilots are likely to appear in custody or tokenised-security flows before wholesale clearing moves on-chain.
More on the wire
- Bank of Korea forms tokenisation task force targeting government bond digitisation
- Samsung to embed stablecoin features across 800 million Galaxy phones
- Coupang and Woori Bank complete Korea's first KRW stablecoin payment on Tempo
- South Korea targets September 2026 reintroduction of won stablecoin legislation