Korea's Ministry of Finance and Economy issued a legislative pre-announcement on 7 October 2026 for a partial amendment to the Enforcement Decree of the Foreign Exchange Transactions Act, published as Ministry Public Notice No. 2026-259. The measure sits at the subordinate legislation stage. The parent Act was promulgated on 2 June 2026 as Act No. 21714 and takes effect on 3 December 2026, and this decree supplies the registration detail the Act leaves to delegated rules.
Draft Article 9-3 defines virtual asset transfer business to cover moving virtual assets between Korea and other countries through custody, management, brokerage or intermediation, and brings transfers between a domestic virtual asset service provider and a personal wallet inside that definition. Draft Articles 17-5 and 17-6 set what a registration application must contain, the facility and specialist personnel conditions an applicant must meet, and the items and deadlines for reporting a change to a registration. Draft Articles 35 to 37 delegate inspection powers to the Financial Supervisory Service and assign data notification and sanctioning authority to the Financial Services Commission. Draft Articles 39 and 39-2 designate an analysis body for virtual asset transfer data and create the legal basis for processing resident registration numbers in registration and administration.
Exchanges and custodians in Korea that move virtual assets across the border, and operators routing assets between customer accounts and self-hosted wallets, come within the registration duty. Overseas platforms that depend on a Korean counterpart for outbound transfers are reached through that domestic entity. Day to day supervision shifts toward the financial regulators: the Financial Supervisory Service would run inspections and the Financial Services Commission would hold the sanctioning power, rather than the finance ministry alone.
Comments on the draft are due by 26 October 2026, closing a pre-announcement period that opened on 7 October 2026. Attached Tables 2 and 4 set the penalty scale: cancellation of registration or authorisation and suspension of business for registration breaches, and administrative fines for failure to report a change or a closure. With the parent Act taking effect on 3 December 2026, firms have roughly five weeks between the close of comments and commencement.
Licentium advises virtual asset service providers, custodians and payment firms on cross-border transfer rules and registration duties in Asian and European jurisdictions. Work we undertake includes registration readiness reviews against facility and personnel conditions, mapping wallet withdrawal flows against the proposed definition of virtual asset transfer business, drafting pre-announcement comments, and preparing for inspection by the Financial Supervisory Service.