Bank of Korea launches 24-hour won settlement pilot for foreign investors

The practical constraint for offshore holders of Korean assets has long been the time-zone mismatch: settlement windows tied to Seoul's trading day force foreign desks to staff odd hours or accept delays. Extending settlement into the investor's own business day is a plumbing fix, not a policy shift, but plumbing is what determines whether foreign participation scales. The open question is whether the pilot broadens beyond its initial scope and whether other regional markets treat round-the-clock settlement as a competitive necessity rather than an experiment.