Bank of Korea Pushes Won Into Uncharted Global Territory

The Bank of Korea (BOK) launched a 24-hour won settlement network pilot on 21 September 2026, allowing foreign investors to settle Korean won transactions through accounts in their home countries using the new settlement network.The pilot, which runs from 9 a.m. to 9 a.m. the following business day, is part of the BOK's efforts to expand access to won settlement infrastructure and support the currency's international use.

Four Banks Join the Offshore Won Settlement Pilot

KB Kookmin Bank, Woori Bank, Hana Bank, and Shinhan Bank are the four pilot participants. Foreign investors use accounts with Registered Foreign Institutions for KRW Business (RFI-Ks) established in their own jurisdictions, removing the requirement to hold a direct South Korean financial institution account.The BOK said it expects the network to “improve foreigners’ access to won settlement infrastructure, eventually enhancing the currency’s international standing.” The pilot operates on business days only, excluding weekends and public holidays, and full operations with additional domestic and overseas bank participants are scheduled for January 2027. The system carries the official designation BOK Won International Wire Network. Overseas banks are expected to join after the January launch, extending the settlement window to institutions outside South Korea’s four largest commercial lenders.

Why MSCI Classification Hangs on Won Access

South Korea has failed to earn MSCI developed-market status in consecutive reviews, most recently in June 2026, when the index operator cited limited offshore convertibility and insufficient onshore liquidity during extended trading hours among the barriers affecting the market's classification.The country launched 24-hour continuous won trading on 6 July 2026, a reform that the linked BigGo report described as the country's most significant currency liberalization since the 1997 Asian financial crisis, yet first-day volumes of roughly $15.1 billion came in 6% below the 30-day average.The RFI-K settlement layer addresses a different piece of the puzzle: letting offshore institutions hold and move won without routing through Seoul business hours. MSCI stated in its June 2026 review that investors “have communicated that the underlying issues have not been fully resolved,” but each incremental reform addresses aspects of the market-access and trading infrastructure concerns identified in its reviews.

Tokenized Settlement Trials Run in Parallel

The BOK is simultaneously advancing two blockchain-based settlement projects. Project Agorá, a cross-border payments initiative led by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), completed real-value trials in July using tokenized central bank reserves denominated in won. Project Hangang, a wholesale central bank digital currency (CBDC) pilot, tests the settlement of tokenized commercial bank deposits on a domestic blockchain rail. The three workstreams, taken together, amount to a broad overhaul of how the won moves internationally. The conventional route for foreign investors required opening accounts through South Korean securities firms during Seoul business hours, a friction that MSCI has repeatedly flagged. Whether the reforms translate into an MSCI upgrade depends on liquidity depth during off-hours trading, a metric the January 2027 full launch will begin to test at scale.