The world’s largest clearing and derivatives conference, WFE CLEAR 2025, kicked off at the Fairmont Ambassador Hotel in Yeouido, Seoul on April 1.
According to the Korea Exchange, the conference gathered more than 170 experts from exchanges, central counterparties (CCPs), regulators, financial institutions, academia and the clearing and derivative industry in 60 countries.
They shared their knowledge and experience with other participants and provided suggestions for the development of the clearing and derivative industry.
At the opening ceremony, Jeong Eun-bo, chairman of the Korea Exchange, emphasized that CCPs should actively adopt new technologies to keep pace with global financial and technological environments.
“It is important to work closely with regulators and government agencies to strengthen global cooperation,” Jeong added.
“CCPs play an important role in maintaining financial market stability, mitigating systemic risks, and help stock markets earn more trust from market participants,” said Lee Yoon-soo, a member of the Securities and Futures Commission. “We need to steadily collaborate with WFE members in the future.”
“This event is important for enhancing an understanding of and collaboration in clearing and settlement infrastructure,” said Nandini Sukumar, CEO of the World Federation of Exchanges (WFE). “The WFE will pump up its efforts to expand research and promote innovation.”
The following main event had four sessions — keynotes, capacity building, panel discussions, and academic discussions.
Keynote addresses covered the clearing and derivative sector from a macro perspective, including the roles of CCPs in changing global financial environments and an assessment of the introduction of mandatory central clearing of over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives.
The capacity-building session selected CCPs as the core topic and analyzed the CCP area in depth including the functions and operation of CCPs, the optimal time to establish a CCP, CCP-centric capital market regulatory frameworks and CCP risk management methodologies.
In the Panel discussion session, they presented challenges in the clearing and derivatives sectors including clearing in the 24-hour and seven-days-a-week trading era, the introduction of distributed ledger technology (DLT), the use of artificial intelligence (AI), and CCP risk management at a group level and explored opportunities.
Finally, they suggested new perspectives on the clearing and derivative sectors including analyzing retail investor trading behaviors in the U.S. options market and exploring advanced risk measurement techniques based on specific algorithms through their papers.
The event ran for three days from April 1 to April 3.
“We hope that this conference will lead to the development and innovation of the clearing and derivatives industry in Korea,” said an official of the Korea Exchange.
“We plan to improve systems, strengthen cooperation with regulatory authorities, and expand global partnerships by reflecting analyses and recommendations by Korean and foreign experts.”
Korea Exchange signs contract with the Stock Exchange of Thailand to supply next-generation clearing and settlement system
Korea Exchange announced on April 14 that it has signed a contract with the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) to supply a next-generation clearing and settlement system.
The SET is a state-run stock exchange established in 1975 and is a leading financial market in Southeast Asia.
It had 858 listed companies and a market capitalization of approximately US$432 billion as of March.
The SET held an international tender for the reconstruction of its clearing and settlement system in June 2024.
The Korea Exchange was selected as the final winner of the project in December last year, beating global competitors.
Through this contract, the Korea Exchange will completely replace the Stock Exchange of Thailand’s clearing and settlement system built in 2015 with an Exture 3.0-based clearing and settlement system.
EXTURE 3.0 is the latest clearing and settlement platform developed by the Korea Exchange.
