Financial Services Commission grants NextTrade full license to launch in Korea

The Financial Services Commission held its second regular meeting on the 5th and stated that it granted full approval for Next Trade's 'multi-party trading execution company investment brokerage business.' The first alternative trading system (ATS) in the domestic securities market is set to launch.

Next Trade will begin operations on the 4th of next month. Next Trade is currently conducting tests in a mock market with the participation of the Korea Exchange, securities firms, and relevant agencies to establish a stable transaction system.

With the launch of Next Trade, stock transactions will be possible for 12 hours each day. Next Trade will operate a regular transaction market in common with the Korea Exchange (9 a.m. to 3:20 p.m.). Additionally, it will open the pre- and after-market (8 a.m. to 8:50 a.m., 3:30 p.m. to 8 p.m.) before and after regular trading hours.

However, among the 32 securities firms that decided to participate in Next Trade, only 15 will be able to utilize both the regular market and the pre- and after-markets. Thirteen firms will initially offer only pre- and after-market transactions and plan to participate in the entire market starting in September. The remaining four firms are expected to join the entire market in September as well.

The number of transaction items is also expected to increase gradually. The goal is to expand the transaction items to 10 in the first week, 110 in the second week, 410 in the third week, and 800 in the fourth week, focusing on highly liquid items.

Specific transaction items are scheduled to be announced at a joint briefing on the 12th. Furthermore, starting at the end of June, the transaction items will be selected and announced five trading days before the end of each quarter, with regular changes taking effect from the first trading day of the next quarter.