Korea Exchange

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Korea Exchange

Founded	2005
Headquarters	Busan, South Korea
Key People	Young-Tak Lee, chairman and CEO; Yeong-Ho Woo, president and COO, futures; Chy-Jang Oak, president and COO, stock market division
Products	Cash equities, bonds, warrants and ETFs, and futures and options on equity indexes and currencies
Web site	http://www.kse.or.kr/index.html

The Korea Exchange (KRX) is a multi-asset class electronic platform incorporating the world's second-largest derivatives exchange by contract volume in 2007 - it ranked first for most of the decade - through its listing of benchmark Kospi 200 Options^[1].

The KRX was formed in 2005 from the merger of four domestic markets, and provides an electronic platform for the trading, clearing and settlement of cash equities, bonds and derivatives. The privately-owned exchange has been working towards an initial public offering for two years, but delayed a float slated for October 2007 amid plans by the South Korean government to reform domestic stock exchange regulations.

1 History
2 Structure and Ownership
3 Futures Contracts Listed
4 Product Development
5 References
6 External links

History

The KRX was formed on January 27, 2005, from the merger of the Korea Stock Exchange (KSE), the Korea Futures Exchange (Kofex), the Kosdaq Market and the Kosdaq committee, part of the Korea Stock Dealers' Association.

The KSE was launched on March 3, 1956, with 12 listed companies and became a joint stock company in 1962 before being reorganized as a government-run entity the following year. It remained under state control until privatization on March 1, 1988, when it was transformed into a member-owned organization.

The KSE started the Stock Index Futures Market on May 3, 1996, with the introduction of Kospi 200 futures; options on the index followed on July 7, 1997.

The Kofex was established as a non-profit organization in Pusan by 11 domestic brokerages on April 23, 1999, with four products - won/US dollar options, US dollar options, gold futures and CD interest rate futures - and hit the 10,000-contracts-per-day level three months after its opening. A government bond contract followed in September.

Structure and Ownership

Ownership is split between 44 financial and government entities, led by Woori Investment Securities (6.3 percent); Daewoo Securities (3.2 percent) and Daishin Securities (3.2 percent). Overseas owners include JP Morgan, Citigroup and Macquarie Bank^[2].