Bank of Korea Launches First Systemic Survey of Crypto Exposure at 31 Banks and Brokerages
Key Takeaways
- •The Bank of Korea has distributed questionnaires to 31 institutions — 18 banks and 13 brokerages — since Oct. 23 for its first systemic review of virtual asset exposure in South Korea's financial sector.
- •Responses from the surveyed institutions are due on Wednesday.
- •This exercise is the first systemic review of the financial sector's virtual asset exposure ever conducted in Korea, and is designed to build a consolidated sector-wide picture across banking and securities.
- •The review takes place within the framework of the Virtual Asset User Protection Act, effective July 2024, which placed virtual asset service providers under the supervision of the Financial Services Commission and the Financial Supervisory Service.
- •If the central bank publishes aggregated findings, they would provide the first consolidated reading of where virtual asset exposure sits across the sector.
The Bank of Korea has opened its first systemic review of how South Korea's financial sector is exposed to virtual assets, sending questionnaires to 18 banks and 13 brokerages — 31 institutions in total — since Oct. 23, according to COINOTAG. Responses from the surveyed institutions are due on Wednesday.
The exercise marks the first time such a systemic review of the financial sector's virtual asset exposure has been carried out in Korea. The Bank of Korea, headquartered in Seoul, is the country's central bank and is responsible for monetary policy as well as monitoring financial stability. Because the questionnaires go to individual institutions, the exercise is designed to produce a consolidated, sector-wide picture of where virtual asset exposure sits across the banking and securities industries.
South Korea has in recent years moved to formalize oversight of its virtual asset market. Under the Virtual Asset User Protection Act, which took effect in July 2024, virtual asset service providers fall under the supervision of the Financial Services Commission and the Financial Supervisory Service. Within that framework, domestic banks provide real-name settlement accounts to virtual asset exchanges, while securities firms have expanded into services such as virtual asset custody. The survey's composition — 18 banks and 13 brokerages — matches those two institutional touchpoints through which regulated firms currently participate in the market.
Central banks and international standard-setters, including the Financial Stability Board, have in recent years flagged the links between crypto-asset markets and the traditional financial system as an area of financial stability monitoring. The Bank of Korea's questionnaire comes as regulators worldwide step up their tracking of institutional involvement in virtual assets. With responses due Wednesday, the next observable step is how the central bank handles the submissions; any publication of aggregated findings would provide the first consolidated reading of the sector's virtual asset exposure.
This content was first published on COINOTAG.
