On 10 November 2026, JinSe Finance reported remarks, attributed to Yonhap, from a discussion that day at the Financial Investment Education Institute in Yeouido, Seoul. The subject was how South Korean payments law should treat stablecoins if they are used as electronic payment instruments.
Shim Eun-seop (沈恩燮), identified as director of the Electronic Finance Inspection Bureau at the Financial Supervisory Service, said that applying the Electronic Financial Transactions Act would be unavoidable in that case. The grounds he gave were fairness with existing electronic payment methods, user protection, and stability of payment and settlement. He said that if the same payment-and-settlement transaction were governed by different laws depending on the payment method, the result could be confusion from regulatory arbitrage.
He recommended a small-amount licensing regime under that Act. The obligations he listed were stability safeguards, drafting and filing of terms, protection of prepaid balances and settlement funds, protection of transaction information, and dispute handling. Those were proposals made at the meeting, not rules described as already in force.
Kim Bo-il (金保一), identified as head of the Bank of Korea’s virtual-asset group, spoke at the same discussion. He said it was necessary to consider how far a national payment system should rely on global private networks. He restated that stablecoin issuance should start with banks at the center, and that who may issue should be widened only after technical verification.
The report said a government bill for a Digital Asset Basic Act, expected to be released later that month, was anticipated to put stablecoin issuance in bank-led consortia. That was a description of what the bill was expected to contain; the item did not report the bill as already published.
This account is drawn from the JinSe Finance item published at 16:55 CST on 10 November 2026, which cites Yonhap: https://jinse.com.cn/lives/540279.html. The Yonhap link given in that item is https://www.yna.co.kr/view/AKR20261110153700002.
