South Korean Financial Supervisory Service officials stated that stablecoin payments should fall under the Electronic Financial Transactions Act.

According to Yonhap News, Shim Eun-seop, Director of the Electronic Finance Inspection Bureau at the Financial Supervisory Service, stated on November 10 at a symposium held at the Seoul Yoido Financial Investment Education Institute that if stablecoins are used as electronic payment instruments, subjecting them to the Electronic Financial Transactions Act is inevitable from the perspectives of fairness with existing payment methods, user protection, and settlement stability. He noted that applying divergent legal frameworks to the same transaction based on the payment instrument could trigger regulatory arbitrage and confusion. He recommended implementing a small-value licensing system under the Act, along with mandatory provisions covering stability guarantees, terms and conditions filing, protection of deposit and settlement funds, transaction data safeguards, and dispute resolution mechanisms.

Kim Bo-il, head of the virtual assets team at the Bank of Korea, highlighted the need to evaluate how much the national payment infrastructure should depend on global private networks. He reiterated his earlier stance that a bank-centric pilot phase, followed by expanded issuer eligibility after technical validation, serves as a pragmatic compromise. The government’s forthcoming Digital Asset Basic Act, expected to be published this month, is anticipated to designate bank-led consortia as the authorized entities for stablecoin issuance.