A plan to give priority approval to a bank consortium as the issuer of a won-denominated stablecoin is expected to be included in the Digital Assets Basic Act, which could be submitted to the National Assembly as early as this month. The financial authorities have partly accepted the Bank of Korea (BOK)'s view, but with opposition in the National Assembly, coordination is expected to take more time.
According to the financial sector on the 7th, the Financial Services Commission (FSC) recently reported to the National Assembly in its "Coordination plan on key issues of the Digital Assets Basic Act" that, on the contentious question of who may issue stablecoins, it would first allow a bank-centered (50%+1) consortium. It will, however, recognize a status that allows a technology company to become the largest shareholder and will also consider ways to increase technology company participation going forward.
The Financial Services Commission (FSC) plans to specify that issuers must be corporations meeting shareholder composition and other requirements set by presidential decree, while pushing to reflect and detail additional discussions during the legislative process in the enforcement decree. However, as the Democratic Party shows strong opposition to a bank-majority consortium, coordination is expected to take time.
Regarding a "unanimous-agreement body" among agencies for stablecoins, since the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MOEF) and the Bank of Korea (BOK), among others, participate as Financial Services Commission (FSC) Commissioners, creating it in the form of a "consultative body" is under review. In a similar vein, in the bill proposed by Democratic Party lawmaker Ahn Do-geol, a Digital Assets Committee would be established, and a working-level consultative body could be set up for consultations among related agencies.
The Financial Services Commission (FSC) is also expected to include governance reforms for virtual asset exchanges in the bill. In its report, the FSC cited exchanges as "core infrastructure" of distribution and described the need for governance reforms. It plans to establish a governance framework comparable to alternative trading systems (ATS) under the current Capital Markets Act, including fit-and-proper tests for major shareholders, and to pursue a plan to cap ownership equity at 15–20%.
Alongside this, it also outlined measures to strengthen fairness and stability in market operations, including: ▲ explicitly stating a "specialization principle" so that exchanges only perform exchange business ▲ imposing an obligation to establish business rules ▲ requiring additional expansion of own capital. In addition, the minimum own-capital requirement for stablecoins will be set at 5 billion won or more, with a review of future increases.
To strengthen accountability for incidents such as exchange hacks, authorities are expected to introduce standards for IT stability comparable to financial companies, no-fault liability for damages in the event of a hack, and a punitive penalty surcharge (10% of revenue).