Title: On the issue of currency internationalisation - South Korean won

Authors: Jaemin Kim

Addresses: Finance Department, College of Business Administration, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA 92182-8236, USA

Abstract: With the increase in trading volume and market volatility in the global currency markets for the past decade, the Korean foreign exchange market has been experiencing significant fluctuations, adding to the instability of the overall financial market. A major contributing factor behind the volatile value of won, Korea's currency, is the government regulation that prohibits won-denominated fund transfers between non-residents, thus preventing an offshore won market from developing. This paper proposes that offshore won trades be permitted as a first step towards the internationalisation of won. Given the size of Korea's economy, stock market, and competiveness and scale of the non-financial industrial sectors, further liberalisation measures of the Korean financial market including permitting an offshore won market will contribute to a more liquid and stable currency market, and thus the overall stability of the financial market.

Keywords: foreign exchange markets; currency internationalisation; offshore currency markets; currency volatility; Korea; global currency markets; currency fluctuations; market instability; financial markets; government regulation; non-residents; fund transfers; stock markets; competitiveness; market liberalisation; stability; Korean won.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEBR.2015.067367

International Journal of Economics and Business Research, 2015 Vol.9 No.2, pp.233 - 244

Published online: 07 Feb 2015 *

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