[DigitalToday reporter Sangyeop Oh] South Korean brokerages are expanding their tokenised securities business from account management for fractional investing to issuance infrastructure for existing financial products such as bonds and funds.

The financial investment industry said on Sept. 7 that the Financial Services Commission on Sept. 4 announced its policy direction on tokenised securities and decided to push ahead in phases with tokenising existing financial products such as stocks, bonds and funds beyond fractional investing.

With the system set to take effect on Feb. 4, 2027, the first phase will pursue tokenisation of private money market funds (MMFs) for institutional investors only, private corporate bonds, unlisted shares using a trust structure and publicly offered fractional investment securities. It will then check market demand and system stability to expand the scope to publicly offered securities, and also plans to build on-chain payment infrastructure using stablecoins and other tools.

Brokerages are accordingly building a joint issuance infrastructure. As of the end of last month, Koscom was pushing to build a joint tokenised securities issuance platform, 'KoSTO', with 12 brokerages including Kiwoom Securities, Daishin Securities, IBK Investment & Securities, Yuanta Securities, BNK Investment & Securities, DB Financial Investment, iM Securities, Meritz Securities, Kyobo Securities, Daol Investment & Securities, Woori Investment & Securities and NH Investment & Securities.

KoSTO allows brokerages to issue tokenised securities using shared infrastructure and manage holdings by investor and changes in rights. It supports issuance and ledger management by linking the Korea Securities Depository's total volume management system with each brokerage's customer account system.

Some brokerages are also building their own issuance platforms. Korea Investment & Securities sent a request for proposals (RFP) in late May to major operators to build its own tokenised securities issuance platform. Its goal is to build an integrated issuance system that includes standardised securities such as bonds and MMFs.

Korea Investment & Securities previously built distributed-ledger infrastructure needed for tokenised securities issuance and settlement with KakaoBank, Toss Bank, Kakao Enterprise and OpenAsset, and completed a pilot issuance in September 2023. Based on the system built at the time and its pilot-issuance experience, it is widening its business scope by building its own platform in line with the system's introduction.

Shinhan Investment Corp signed a business agreement on Feb. 19 with Nextrade and fractional investing operators including Musicow, StockKeeper and Together Art. Shinhan Investment Corp will take on the role of distribution infrastructure, including investor account management and providing the distributed ledger needed for future conversion to tokenised securities.

Shinhan Investment Corp participated as an account management institution in a total of 10 issues of investment contract securities in 2025. It is building experience in account management with fractional investing operators handling different underlying assets such as music copyrights, Korean cattle, artworks and aircraft engines.

Mirae Asset Securities issued digital bonds worth about 100 billion won in Hong Kong on Jan. 29. It raised 325 million Hong Kong dollars and $30 million at the same time, using HSBC's distributed-ledger platform Orion. HSBC served as lead manager, and Mirae Asset Securities' Hong Kong unit acted as co-lead manager.

In the fractional investing market, Kiwoom Securities has provided account infrastructure early on. Musicow, in September 2023, converted existing claims to participate in music copyright royalties into music revenue securities and began trading, linking individual Kiwoom Securities accounts in each customer's name. Investor deposits are kept in accounts under customers' names at Kiwoom Securities.

Overseas, cases are already spreading in which tokenised securities are directly used for corporate fundraising and fund management.

Japan's Toyota Finance began accepting subscriptions on Aug. 18 for a 1-year publicly offered tokenised corporate bond, the 'TOYOTA Wallet Tsumugu Bond'. The offering size is up to 1 billion yen, and investors can apply from 100,000 yen. It was linked to its payment app, Toyota Wallet, to allow subscriptions without separately opening a securities account.

Toyota Finance issued its first tokenised corporate bond worth 1 billion yen in March last year, and this time introduced a direct subscription method to broaden customer touchpoints.

In the United States, BlackRock's tokenised fund 'BUIDL', launched in March 2024, is a representative example. It issues fund shares as tokens on a blockchain based on returns generated from U.S. dollars and short-term Treasury bonds. Securitize is in charge of the tokenisation platform and share record management, and BNY Mellon is participating in custody and management of the fund's assets.

Jiwon Kim (김지원), an analyst at KB Securities, said, "Financial firms' competitiveness is more likely to be determined by operating ledgers that meet regulatory requirements, repeatedly issuing standardised securities, and the ability to link with existing account and payment systems, rather than whether they own their own blockchain."