Oesihyeop "Resolution to Extend Won-Dollar Forex Trading Hours"

The Seoul Foreign Exchange Market Operation Council (Soehyeop) announced on the 16th that it held a general meeting on the 14th and resolved to extend the trading hours for the KRW-USD exchange and partially abolish the electronic trading rules.

Accordingly, the KRW-USD foreign exchange trading hours through brokerage firms will be extended from the current 9:00 AM to 3:30 PM to 9:00 AM to 2:00 AM the following day starting from the 1st of next month. However, the trading hours for KRW-other currency pairs will remain unchanged.

This is one of the policy tasks for improving the foreign exchange market structure, expected to enhance convenience for domestic and foreign investors in currency exchange and reduce transaction costs.

Soehyeop also decided to abolish the suspension of API application for 15 minutes immediately after market opening and 15 minutes before market closing in the electronic trading rulebook (API Rulebook).

It was explained that RFI (foreign financial institutions) that trade only through API (electronic trading infrastructure) are unable to trade for a total of 30 minutes under the current rule, and there is a need to create a smoother foreign exchange trading environment.

In addition, spot foreign exchange brokerage firms will provide the spot exchange rate at every hour on the hour from 9:00 AM to 2:00 AM the following day and at 3:30 PM, as well as TWAP (time-weighted average price), in accordance with the extended KRW-USD trading hours.

A Soehyeop official emphasized that they plan to actively strive to ensure that participants in the Seoul foreign exchange market can trade stably in the changed foreign exchange trading environment brought about by the improvement of the foreign exchange market structure.