[New Year's Address] Lee Sun-ho, President of Korea Securities Depository, "We Must Devote Ourselves to Digital Innovation as an Essential Survival Strategy"

Lee Soon-ho, President of the Korea Securities Depository, stated on the 2nd, "We must now devote ourselves to digital innovation, which has become an essential survival strategy in the financial industry."

Lee Sun-ho, President of the Korea Securities Depository. (Provided by Korea Securities Depository)

In his New Year's address, President Lee said, "We will support company-wide capabilities for the next-generation system development currently being implemented step-by-step."

He praised the employees, saying, "Throughout 2023, we operated the financial investment infrastructure stably without a single financial accident or information technology (IT) incident, and I am proud of our staff."

He also evaluated that they faithfully supported government policy tasks such as the abolition of the foreign investor registration system, the expansion and reorganization of the securitized bond integrated information system, and the establishment of a listing base for exchange-traded funds (ETF) and exchange-traded notes (ETN) based on risk-free benchmark interest rates.

He reported that the Korea Securities Depository's global status has also risen over the past year. He said, "We have thoroughly prepared the foreign national bond integrated account service, and successfully held the Asia Bond Market Initiative (ABMI) international conference jointly with the Asian Development Bank, reaffirming our company's status in the Asian capital market."

He emphasized the need to devote efforts to digital innovation to lay the foundation for sustainable growth over the next 50 years. He said, "We will support company-wide capabilities for next-generation system development," adding, "Through this, we will modernize business processes and IT infrastructure, accelerate digital transformation, and strive to become an innovative financial platform that leads the development of the capital market."

He also urged thorough preparation for the emergence and spread of innovative financial products such as token securities. He said, "The distributed ledger-based token securities ecosystem itself is a threatening competitor to our business," but added, "At times like this, a shift in mindset and a progressive approach are necessary to utilize the newly emerged token securities as our company's future business."

Furthermore, he called for creating new growth engines in harmony with the market. He said, "Many new services are scheduled for development and launch, including the introduction of electronic shareholder meeting management agency tasks, the commencement of personal investor government bond administrative agency tasks, and the establishment of clearing and settlement infrastructure for new markets such as digital securities markets and ATS," adding, "A fatal accident can instantly destroy the trust capital our company has built over 50 years."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.