South Korea's central bank governor: The Korean won stablecoin should be gradually introduced starting from banks

 Lee Chang-yong, the Governor of the Bank of Korea (central bank), stated on the 19th: "In the future, it is necessary to introduce a stablecoin for the Korean won to include programming functions in the currency, but a more prudent approach would be to introduce it starting from banks and then gradually expand it." On that day, Lee Chang-yong, attending the National Assembly's Planning and Finance Committee, pointed out the potential risks of stablecoins in response to questions from lawmakers about the timing and issuing entities of stablecoins, demonstrating a cautious attitude.

Regarding the conditions for the issuing entities, he emphasized: "In order to prevent money laundering issues, only large companies with systems such as KYC (Know Your Customer) and reaching a certain scale should be allowed to issue stablecoins. However, if large non-bank companies are allowed to issue stablecoins, the existing bank-centric financial industry structure may undergo unknown changes, so caution is needed." He explained that this is equivalent to allowing payment settlement banks with narrow banking functions, which may lead to a decrease in bank deposits and profitability.