On November 10, 2026, Shim Eun-seop, director of the Electronic Finance Inspection Bureau at South Korea’s Financial Supervisory Service, said that if stablecoins are used as electronic payment instruments, applying the Electronic Financial Transactions Act would be unavoidable. He spoke at a discussion in Yeouido, Seoul. BlockBeats reported the remarks the same day, citing Yonhap News Agency.
Shim tied that view to fairness with existing electronic payment methods, user protection, and the stability of payment and settlement. He said that if the same payment and settlement transaction were placed under different laws only because the payment instrument differed, the result could be regulatory arbitrage and confusion.
He argued for introducing a small-scale license under the Act for firms that conduct stablecoin payment and settlement. He also said those firms should be subject to duties covering stability safeguards, the drafting and filing of terms, protection of prepaid balances and settlement funds, protection of transaction information, and dispute handling. He said he fully agreed that anti-money-laundering obligations should be imposed separately on issuers, wallet providers, and payment businesses.
Kim Bo-il, head of the Bank of Korea’s virtual-asset team, restated that stablecoin issuance should begin with banks at the center. He said eligibility to issue should be widened only after it is confirmed that the technology can connect effectively with existing systems and supervision. He described this as a compromise, put forward because no optimal plan was yet available, to reduce the chance that stablecoins would be used to circumvent regulation. He also said it was necessary to assess carefully how far Korea’s national-level payment system should depend on global private networks, and how linkage and interoperability with existing systems should be designed.
Yonhap said the government draft of a Digital Asset Basic Act, expected to be released within that month, was likely to center stablecoin issuance mainly on bank-centered consortia. That was reported as an expectation about the draft, not as a completed statute.
Other participants did not all back an industry-specific structure. Hwang Seok-jin, a professor at Dongguk University, suggested that, rather than issuance led by a particular industry, firms meeting set qualification and responsibility requirements should be allowed to take part. Lee Dong-cheol, chairman of the Credit Finance Association, said he hoped more of the financial industry could join a won-stablecoin issuance consortium and contribute its respective strengths. Namgung Seol, a division head at Shinhan Card, said overseas stablecoin payment cases usually rely on the Visa network, and that if Korea wants to promote early circulation in payments it may also need, to some extent, to use card-network infrastructure.
The discussion was hosted by the Democratic Party of Korea’s promotion group on artificial intelligence, finance, and the economy. Lawmakers at the meeting expected the government draft to be released within the month.
These are reported statements by officials and other speakers. They are not a reserve attestation or an audit, and they do not establish that any stablecoin is guaranteed, insured, or redeemable at all times.
BlockBeats published this report on November 10, 2026, at 16:49 (UTC+8), citing Yonhap News Agency: original report.
