The Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) is planning to broaden the range of corporate disclosures accessible to foreign investors in real-time and to introduce a new service exclusively in English called “English Open DART” by the end of the year.
On Feb. 18, the FSS announced the road map for improving the English disclosure platform.
In efforts to enhance foreign investors’ access to the domestic stock market, the FSS has been expanding English disclosures. Last year, it improved the electronic disclosure system, known as “DART,” enabling foreign investors to instantly verify disclosure occurrences on the English DART as soon as legal disclosures were submitted. Additionally, the FSS provided real-time English translation of report titles and allowed for the viewing of submitted Korean financial statements in English through a specialized viewer for the international standard computational language, eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL).
Continuing its efforts, the FSS plans to further enhance the English DART this year, aiming to enable real-time verification of key components of legal disclosures, such as tables of contents and formats, in English.
Furthermore, the FSS plans to enhance the integration search function for English DART disclosures and provide foreign investors with key convenience features previously available only to domestic investors, such as “Public Offering Information.” This will involve adding an English section to the “Public Offering Board,” which categorizes prospectuses currently under subscription or planned subscription into equity, debt, and derivative securities, and provides information on issuing companies and subscription dates. Additionally, the service will offer an “Offering Calendar” for monthly subscription statuses and provide English translations for stock and bond-related recruitment and sales performances.
For the analysis and utilization of 83 types of key disclosure data, the FSS will also proceed with the establishment of a new English-exclusive service called “English Open DART.” It plans to initiate system development with the goal of completing the public competitive bidding process by April and aiming for full operation by the end of the year.
An FSS official stated, “We anticipate that foreign investors will be able to verify in real-time the table of contents and items of key disclosures in English, enabling them to easily collect and analyze large amounts of data. Providing foreign investors with key convenience features previously available only to domestic investors, such as ‘public offering information,’ will also contribute to the capital raising of domestic companies.”