South Korea’s Insurance Training Institute, a nonprofit education body, is seeking to expand into new digital-asset-based businesses beyond its core training mission, but financial regulators have not approved the move, effectively putting the plan on hold. The delay is also fueling debate over whether the expansion fits the purpose of an educational institution.
According to reporting by Ajunews on the 23rd, the institute submitted an application to the Financial Services Commission on Feb. 9 seeking approval to amend its charter. The proposed changes center on issuing an “education token” and establishing and investing in an AI subsidiary. More than two months later, approval has not been granted, the report said.
The institute separately filed a request on the 2nd asking to be notified of the outcome and urged a prompt decision, but the commission still has not signed off. Through the charter revision, the institute aimed to issue an “education token” for uses such as paying course fees and to lay the groundwork for eventually expanding globally with a digital-asset-based payment infrastructure.
Critics say the effort could go beyond the role of a nonprofit training institution. The institute was established to educate insurance industry workers, raising questions about whether issuing tokens or expanding revenue-generating activities through a subsidiary aligns with its founding purpose.
Some observers say a business model that includes issuing and operating digital assets could effectively amount to a separate finance or platform business. An FSC official said there were concerns the plan could fall outside an education institution’s role, and that the commission has asked the institute for legal opinions and supplemental materials.
There is also criticism that pushing a charter change premised on token issuance is premature because a basic law on digital assets that would include requirements for issuing stablecoins has not been enacted. Under the FSC’s “guidelines on cashing out virtual assets held by nonprofit corporations,” announced in May last year, nonprofit virtual-asset transactions are allowed only on a limited basis for converting donated assets into cash for donation management. Using virtual assets for payments, purchases or operations is not yet permitted.
Cho Jeong-hee, an attorney at law firm Decode, said the current guidelines are intended to allow nonprofits to receive donations in virtual assets, adding that it is difficult to interpret and apply them more broadly.
The institute, however, said the business is being reviewed within regulatory boundaries and does not pose a problem. An institute official said systems such as paying tuition with tokens or providing scholarships to trainees would be examined going forward, but added that no specific implementation plan has been set.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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