Always-on won: Korean dealers fret about risks in landmark shift to 24-hour trad

SEOUL, June 26 (Reuters) - Over an 18-year career trading currencies in Seoul, Namkoong Taehun was on the front lines of the collapse of Lehman Brothers, the post-Brexit plunge in the pound, and the won's dramatic tailspin after South Korea's 2024 martial law decree.

Now his ‌job will be stretched around the clock as South Korea's long-cloistered currency opens up to a 24-hour trading cycle from July 6, with banks trialling ‌the system from Monday.

How will 24-hour won trading impact South Korea's banks?

What is the Korea Discount and MSCI designation?

What risks come with extended won trading hours?

Why is South Korea opening currency trading hours?

That's a transition even a veteran dealer like Namkoong calls "daunting", as Seoul tears down safeguards in place since the won's collapse during the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis.

"When I first came to the market, ​it was a 9-to-3 game," said Namkoong, 47, who is part of the 37-member FX trading team at Hana Bank in Seoul, the country's biggest forex bank by trading volume. "You could count the participating financial institutions on one hand."

"Now, the market has expanded exponentially," he said, surrounded by a dozen empty co

Fuente original: Yahoo Finance (https://finance.yahoo.com/news/always-won-dealers-fret-risks-002020037.html)