The foreign investor registration system will be scrapped 30 years after its launch.
The Financial Services Commission (FSC) on Jan. 24 announced revisions to rules to ease foreign investor access to the domestic capital market including the abolition of restrictions on them.
Foreign investors from 1992 were allowed to invest in stocks listed on domestic markets but the limits of 10% for all such investors and 3% for an individual was set for each category. The foreign investor registration system also required such investors to preregister their personal information with the FSC as a means to manage foreign investment. Due to this rule, a foreign investor could invest in domestic stocks only after registering with the agency and receiving an investment registration number.
Thanks to the abolition of the system due to criticism that it constituted excessive control of such investors, a foreign national can immediately open an account like a citizen through processes like real-name verification at a stock company. Account data is managed using a passport number for an individual and a standardized ID or legal entity identifier used to identify a company.
The FSC also prepared a system to grant better access to information for foreign investors.
From next year, a company listed on the nation’s main stock market KOSPI with assets of more than KRW 10 trillion must release important investment-related data in English. Coverage of this rule will be expanded from 2026 to a company with assets of KRW 2 trillion or more.
In the first half of the year, the FSC will revise the Enforcement Decree of the Capital Market Act and regulations on financial investment and carry out within this year a plan to raise accessibility to the capital market by foreign investors after development of the related system.
