Global financial institutions said South Korea's stock market needs to modernize its entire market infrastructure, including trading and settlement systems, rather than focus on corporate governance alone, if it is to move beyond the so-called "Korea discount." With 24-hour trading and shortened settlement cycles (T+1) becoming the new standard in global capital markets, they said Korea must accelerate structural reform to improve access for global investors.
At Korea Premium Week 2026, co-hosted by the Financial Services Commission and the Korea Exchange at The Grand Lotte Seoul in Jung-gu, Seoul, on the 29th, officials from domestic and overseas financial institutions discussed what Korea's stock market needs to strengthen its global competitiveness. In a session on advancing capital market infrastructure, speakers repeatedly urged that Korea first build up the market's fundamentals — clearing, settlement and foreign exchange — before extending trading hours or moving to T+1.
Timothy Cuddihy, chief risk officer at the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC), said the goal of a T+1 transition should not simply be faster settlement. For the Korean market, he said, authorities must thoroughly examine whether foreign investors can confirm trades, secure funding and complete foreign exchange settlement within the compressed time frame. "The right goal is safe speed," he said. He added that readiness should be measured concretely, with testing under assumed market stress scenarios and monitoring after the transition.
Peter Stein, chief executive of the Asia Securities Industry & Financial Markets Association, compared the task to plumbing. "Making the Korean market more attractive to foreign investors is like plumbing," he said. "You have to check whether there are blocked pipes, so that rusted plumbing doesn't stand in the way of smooth investment." To do that, he said, Korea must first resolve friction in existing systems such as dual collateral requirements and foreign exchange settlement. While he agreed with the move to T+1, he said shortening the settlement cycle while problems in the existing infrastructure remain could make matters worse. Simon Williams, a director at BlackRock, said: "Predictability and consistency in regulatory guidance is the path to trust." He added that T+1 is also a major opportunity and that the Korean market could use it to showcase this kind of market readiness.
The exchange is also moving to overhaul its systems for an era of round-the-clock trading. Jin Dong-hwa, a managing director in the Korea Exchange's KOSPI Market Division, said the shift to 24-hour trading is unavoidable. "We will consult with regulators and push to convert the currently separated trading systems into a single-board structure," he said. Still, the exchange plans to move cautiously on any full extension of trading hours, after sufficient discussion, given the staffing and costs involved and concerns about market stability.
Bob McCooey, vice chairman of Nasdaq, pointed to the growing global influence of Korean investors. "If Korean investors once had to adapt to global markets, now global markets have to adapt to Korean investors," he said. "News doesn't only happen between 9:30 a.m. and 4 p.m." Extending trading hours, he said, should not stop at keeping markets open longer but must come with modernized market infrastructure built on transparency, investor protection and resilience.
An earlier session on the vision and tasks for a "Korea premium" era also stressed the need to strengthen the market's fundamentals. Song Ki-myung, head of the Korea Exchange's KOSPI Market Division, which oversees the main bourse, listed raising corporate value, tightening reviews of duplicate listings, delisting troubled companies, easing market concentration and building infrastructure for 24-hour trading to improve global access as core tasks. The message was that Korea's stock market can sustain its re-rating only if trading and settlement systems are brought up to global standards, going beyond corporate governance and shareholder returns.
