Opinion: South Korean stablecoin business may be restructured with "banking union at its core"

The number of applications for stablecoin issuer licences received by the HKMA since August has fallen short of expectations, according to local information from the Bank of Korea (Bank of Korea). The HKMA said there were only 36 applicants by the end of September, less than half the 77 institutions that initially showed interest.
The Bank of Korea is also watching the Hong Kong case closely because stablecoins need to be managed within a strict regulatory framework, even in Hong Kong, where capital movement controls are loose and there is no financial-industrial separation principle ("gold-industry separation principle"), which will provide a fuller basis for the Bank of Korea's policy.
Echoing this, some opinions predict that South Korea's domestic stablecoin business is also very likely to be restructured with a "banking union as the core". On the 20th, at the National Affairs Supervision Conference of the South Korean Parliament, the Korean Financial Commission and the Bank of Korea jointly stated their position that the issuing body of the Korean won stablecoin should be a banking union as the core.
Kwon Dae-young, vice-chairperson of the Korean Financial Commission, responded to a question from Yoo Dong-soo, a member of the Democratic Party, on whether "an alliance with banks is more appropriate when innovation and stability are balanced". The Bank of Korea also stressed in its business report that it "supports in principle" and pointed out that "it is necessary to issue [stablecoins] through a bank-centered alliance".