Overview
- The Ministry of Finance and Economy unveiled the roadmap on Sunday, July 19, 2026, with the stated aim of creating an environment where foreigners face no barriers to obtaining or using the Korean won abroad.
- Near-term, Seoul will publish electronic foreign-exchange guidelines in August to enable automated overnight trading and plans to replace the current market average rate (MAR) with a time-weighted average price (TWAP) for the benchmark exchange rate.
- Operational fixes already in place include a 24-hour FX market, temporary won overdraft facilities for foreign investors, and the ability for non-resident investors to settle through omnibus accounts at ICSDs such as Euroclear and Clearstream.
- Market response so far shows foreign demand rising for won assets, with reported net inflows into Korean government bonds of about 990 billion won by mid-2026, suggesting early investor interest as frictions are reduced.
- The roadmap ties the currency reforms to risk management and digital initiatives—including rules for won-backed stablecoins, CBDC pilots and tokenized bonds—and is meant to deepen liquidity and lower costs for firms over time while managing cross-border flow volatility.