South Korea tokenized securities FSC: Path Opens

South Korea’s Financial Services Commission on Oct. 1, 2026 proposed subordinate-rule revisions under the Financial Investment Services and Capital Markets Act and the Electronic Registration Act. The South Korea tokenized securities FSC package is meant to let stocks, bonds and funds be issued and circulated as tokenized securities when the amended laws take effect on Feb. 4, 2027.

What happened

The FSC’s English press release says traditional securities typesstocks, bonds and funds—plus fractional investment securities in the form of non-monetary trust beneficiary certificates and investment contract securities may be issued and circulated in tokenized form. Distributed ledgers would need to be shared across two or more account management entities, including issuer account management entities, alongside the Korea Securities Depository. Directly charging a fee for use of distributed ledgers would be prohibited.

Issuer account management entities that both issue tokenized securities and manage customer securities accounts would face a minimum equity capital requirement of KRW 4 billion and would need at least one account management professional, one internal control professional and two information technology professionals.

On the FSCMA side, the proposal adds an over-the-counter exchange licensing unit for debt securities, alongside existing units for unlisted stocks and non-monetary trust beneficiary certificates. For investor protection, the maximum investment limit for retail investors would be an annual net purchase amount of KRW 100 million on each OTC exchange. The Korea Times/Yonhap account of the same day restates the KRW 100 million cap as about $73,700 and notes that the laws take effect in February next year.

Public comment runs from Oct. 2 to Nov. 11, 2026. After successive approvals, the subordinate rules are to take effect on Feb. 4, 2027, matching the revised statutes’ start date.

Why it matters

The proposal turns a statutory tokenization path into operational rules: which instruments qualify, who may run issuer accounts, how ledgers must be shared, and how much retail money may enter each OTC token-securities venue per year. The KRW 100 million figure is an annual net-purchase cap per OTC exchange for retail investors, not a lifetime limit and not a wholesale-market cap.

Tokenization here is securities market infrastructure, not a payment-stablecoin story. For related Called It coverage on tokenized markets and real-world assets, see Bloomberg on RWAs and stablecoins and tokenized options contracts.

No price target or issuance calendar for any Korean equity or bond appears in the FSC materials used here.

What's next

Comments close Nov. 11, 2026. The FSC says it will keep communicating with stakeholders before the approval process and the Feb. 4, 2027 effective date. Licensing detail for the new OTC debt-securities unit and the first wave of issuer account managers are not listed as completed steps in the Oct. 1 release.

The FSC’s English announcement is here.