Overview
- The won, which had hovered near multi‑month lows around 1,484 per dollar, jumped to roughly 1,460 intraday and closed at 1,449.8, its strongest since Nov. 6 and the biggest one‑day rise in over three years.
- The Finance Ministry and Bank of Korea declared that excessive weakness is not desirable in a rare director‑general‑level verbal intervention, pledging comprehensive policy execution to stabilize the market.
- Officials introduced a one‑year tax incentive through a Reshoring Investment Account to encourage sales of overseas stocks and reinvestment at home, with capital gains relief and tax‑favored hedging products for existing holdings, capped at 50 million won.
- A four‑agency consultative body with the National Pension Service will design a framework tying pension investment practices to FX stability, alongside extended hedging programs and a $65 billion BOK–NPS swap carried into next year, with the NPS reportedly starting strategic hedging.
- Regulatory steps include a temporary waiver of the FX stability levy, interest on excess foreign‑currency reserves, looser FX liquidity stress tests and higher forward‑position limits, while the presidential office reviews adjusting the timing of planned U.S. investments subject to U.S. approval.