Bae Gwang-su (left), CEO of NH Investment & Securities, and Yoon Chang-hyun, president of Koscom, pose for a photo after signing the MOU. [NH Investment & Securities]
Bae Gwang-su (left), CEO of NH Investment & Securities, and Yoon Chang-hyun, president of Koscom, pose for a photo after signing the MOU. [NH Investment & Securities]

NH Investment & Securities signed an MOU with Koscom on Wednesday at Koscom's headquarters in Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul to jointly advance an STO platform project. NH Investment & Securities CEO Bae Gwang-su, Koscom President Yoon Chang-hyun and executives from both companies attended the signing ceremony.

The agreement aims to strengthen both firms' capacity to pursue STO-related business and proactively develop business models that can be translated into actual products and customer services, ahead of the STO regulatory regime taking effect in February 2027.

Under the MOU, the two companies plan to carry out phased cooperation covering technology collaboration on STO platforms and distributed ledger systems, review of joint platform utilization, identification of underlying assets and business models suited to STOs, and technical verification before service launch. The specific scope and timeline will be determined through further consultation, taking into account relevant regulations and market conditions.

Through the partnership, NH Investment & Securities plans to examine the technical requirements for STO operations and how they can be integrated with existing business systems, and to verify whether distributed ledger technology can be applied to actual securities operations — laying the groundwork for commercialization. The firm aims to build an operational framework capable of responding effectively to market changes once the regulatory regime takes effect.

STOs have so far been discussed primarily in the context of non-standardized products backed by real assets, but there is growing interest in expanding their application to standardized securities such as bonds.

NH Investment & Securities plans to use the partnership to explore the feasibility of tokenizing standardized securities, including bonds. Based on an analysis of key operational processes — such as product issuance, rights management and redemption — the firm intends to verify the viability of a standardized-securities-based STO business model and develop a concrete commercialization plan.

"The integration of digital assets into the regulated financial system is expected to bring fundamental changes not only to the issuance and distribution structure of capital markets, but to financial services as a whole," Bae said. "Through our cooperation with Koscom, we will proactively verify the infrastructure and operational processes needed for STO business, and continue to identify opportunities to expand our capital market capabilities into digital-based financial services."

Yoon said that for the STO market to open in earnest, reliable infrastructure connecting market participants in a stable manner is just as important as the competitiveness of individual financial firms. "By combining NH Investment & Securities' broad capabilities with Koscom's capital market IT and blockchain technology, we will verify the stability and scalability of a joint platform and build a solid foundation for the STO issuance market," he added.

NH Investment & Securities said it will continue to refine its STO business models and implementation plans through its digital asset task force as it prepares for the regulatory launch.

NH Investment & Securities has been stepping up external partnerships. On Tuesday, the firm hosted Lynn Martin, chair of NYSE Group, who was visiting Korea, at its Yeouido Parc1 office for a roundtable discussion. Bae and Martin exchanged views on a range of topics including major shifts in global capital markets, trends in US financial markets, Korean companies' use of global capital markets and digital financial markets.


th5@heraldcorp.com