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South Korea’s ruling party urges stablecoin bill by December 10
South Korea’s ruling Democratic Party has called on the Financial Services Commission (FSC) to submit a stablecoin regulation bill by December 10, according to a report from Maeil Economic News.
The party wants the bill introduced during the current National Assembly session and passed in January.
Kang Jun-hyeon, a party lawmaker and secretary of the National Assembly’s Financial Services Committee, said that if the government does not meet the deadline, the party will push forward with a legislator-initiated bill.
Party members and the FSC met on December 1 to discuss options, including the possibility of forming a consortium between the Bank of Korea, the FSC, and the banking sector to issue stablecoins.
Discussions also covered requirements for banks to hold over 50% of shares in the consortium, but the FSC said no agreement was reached.
🔗 Source: The Block
🧠 Food for thought
Implications, context, and why it matters.
- A December 10 deadline lands amid splits over whether banks must hold at least 50% stakes in stablecoin consortiums, and the Bank of Korea warns that privately issued digital won tokens could destabilize monetary policy 1.
- Financial Services Commission says no final decision on consortium design or a 51% bank stake 1. Three bills vary on issuance, collateral, and whether issuers can pay interest 1. South Korea still trails the US, EU, and Japan 1. This raises concerns at Naver Financial (the fintech unit of internet company Naver) as well as KakaoBank (a digital-only bank) 1.
- Project Hangang is a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) pilot with 100,000 participants testing tokenized deposits (bank deposits represented on a digital ledger) from April to June 2025 2, and it hints at a controlled option while rules remain contested.
- If lawmakers require bank-led consortiums with majority control, Korean banks will look to outside providers.
- Seven banks in the Bank of Korea (BoK) deposit token pilot 3 are testing tokenization infrastructure, making them near-term partner options for vendors and infrastructure investors.
- Pilot work aims to cut intermediaries and enable real-time merchant settlement 4. Banks will favor low-latency payment rails that interoperate with QR-based mobile banking systems and KYC automation plus AML tools as authorities plan to extend the travel rule (a requirement to attach sender plus recipient information to transfers) to transfers under 1 million won 1.
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