A view of buildings in Seoul / gettyimagesbank

Major KOSPI-listed companies will be obliged to issue public disclosures in English from January next year, Korea's top financial regulator said Sunday.

According to the announcements by the Financial Services Commission (FSC), KOSPI-listed companies with an asset size of over 10 trillion won ($7.6 billion) will be required to publish disclosures in English from the start of next year in matters of key information, such as dividends, capital increase or decrease and issues related to trading status, within three days of their submittal of the same disclosures in the Korean language. Companies where foreign ownership is less than 5 percent will be excluded from the obligation, even if they meet the qualification of the corporate asset size.

In the case of companies where foreign ownership of stakes is over 30 percent, the threshold bar of a corporate asset size will be lowered to 2 trillion won. Thus, KOSPI-listed companies with assets worth over 2 trillion won and more than 30 percent of their stakes held by foreign investors must also issue important public disclosures in English within three days of their Korean language disclosures.

From 2026, the scope of listed companies bearing the obligation will be expanded to all KOSPI-listed companies with an asset size of at least 2 trillion won, and their English disclosures should be simultaneously issued as their submittal of disclosures in Korean.

Since the government first announced the plan to widen foreign investors' accessibility to the Korean capital markets by removing language barriers in the country's electronic disclosure sites early this year, financial authorities have completed necessary revisions of related regulations to introduce the mandatory English disclosure system.

There are two official disclosure sites — Data Analysis, Retrieval and Transfer System (DART) operated by the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS), and the Korea Investors' Network for Disclosure System (KIND) operated by the Korea Exchange (KRX). From Monday, the KRX offers an AI translator service jointly developed with Naver Cloud for disclosure filing procedures at its KIND site.

The FSS-run DART has also added a new function guiding listed companies through their obligation to submit English disclosures when submitting disclosures in Korean through the DART editor. In addition, the FSS plans to improve the system to provide automatic translation of key summaries in the future. The financial watchdog also plans to set up an English version of its "Open DART" service, which provides disclosure data for open application programming interface use.

While the financial authorities have been working on enhancing the official electronic disclosure platforms to better suit foreign investors' demands, they have also been providing both online and offline education as well as translation support to companies in need.

"The FSC expects the implementation of the first-stage English disclosure obligation will lead to a more active issuance of disclosures in English, improving foreign investors' access to the Korean capital markets and thereby raising its global competitiveness," an official from the FSC said.