MSCI says it needs to see South Korea's regulatory changes put into practice for market upgrade (updated)

MSCI

Today 02:03

Adds more comments from Fernandez on won, MSCI's recent statement in paragraphs 4 and
By Heejin Kim, Jihoon Lee and Yena Park
SEOUL, Nov 6 (Reuters) - MSCI Chairman and CEO Henry Fernandez said on Friday that the index provider needed to see South Korea's regulatory changes put into practice for an upgrade to developed-market status. 
"I see the progress that has been made in terms of the rules, the regulations and all of that," he told a conference in Seoul. "But we need to see that in practice."
"So in order to accelerate that, we need to work together to push everyone to the finish line," he said. 
He cited as an example that the won currency was not yet internationally traded on the spot market. 
An upgrade from emerging to developed-market status is one of President Lee Jae Myung's major policy pledges. His government has rolled out market reforms and tax measures to boost the domestic stock market since he took office in June 2025.
South Korea also opened up its currency market in July to allow 24-hour trading in a bid to win the upgrade. 
South Korean regulators are also considering other measures to tackle the discount in local stock prices compared with global peers, including expanding English-language company filings, pushing firms to increase dividends and naming andshaming those with extremely low price-to-book ratios. 
In its annual market classification review in June, MSCI acknowledged South Korea’s reform efforts but said market participants would need time to "thoroughly evaluate the sustained effectiveness of the changes”. It also noted the inability to trade the won offshore. 

 (Reporting by Heejin Kim and Jihoon Lee 
Editing by Ed Davies)
 ((Heejin.Kim@thomsonreuters.com;))