SEOUL, Feb 21 (Reuters) - South Korea on Wednesday said it plans to ease regulations to make it easier for investors to transfer won between Korean bank accounts and an omnibus account at settlement houses to improve won accessibility for global investors in Korean treasury bonds.
Securities settlement house Euroclear last August said it would open an omnibus account for Korean treasury bonds from July this year.
The planned revision, which is to take place before the end of March, would clear a hurdle for global investors due to local regulations that require forex transactions be carried out using real names, the finance ministry and the Bank of Korea said.
An omnibus account allows for managed trades of more than one person and anonymity of persons in the account.
Measures announced Wednesday brings South Korea a step closer to meet requests by global investors to improve currency accessibility as it makes a push to get its stocks and bonds accepted on benchmark developed market indexes such as FTSE Russell’s global bond index.
A potential inclusion into the World Government Bond Index could pave the way for tens of billions of dollars of inflows into Korean securities.
South Korea recently scrapped taxes for foreigners' income from their Korean treasury bond investments, began accepting registrations from foreign banks to trade the won onshore and are extending USD/KRW trading hours, all of which are efforts to improve market access for foreign investors.
It also plans to allow foreign investors to use overdraft accounts in Korean won to prevent any settlement glitches that may arise from interbank transfer errors. (Reporting by Cynthia Kim; Editing by Sharon Singleton)
