The Korea Exchange received a B grade in the Financial Services Commission's management evaluation for the previous year, marking a two-level drop from the prior year. Despite a significant increase in net profit last year, the occurrence of an IT incident is believed to have had a major impact on the evaluation.
According to the financial investment industry on July 27, the Financial Services Commission recently assigned a B grade to the Korea Exchange and an A grade to the Korea Securities Depository based on the management performance for 2025.
This is the first time the Korea Exchange has received a B grade since 2016. The exchange first achieved an S grade in the 2021 management evaluation, maintained an A grade in 2022 and 2023, and regained an S grade in the 2024 evaluation. However, in this latest evaluation, it fell from an S grade to a B grade.
The Financial Services Commission conducts annual management evaluations of its affiliated institutions, which are excluded from the Ministry of Economy and Finance's public institution management evaluation. The evaluations are categorized into six grades: S (excellent), A, B, C, D, and E, reflecting overall management performance, organizational operation, internal controls, and key business outcomes. The results serve as a basis for employee performance bonuses and are used as reference material for the approval of the following year's budget.
The downgrade of the exchange's grade is attributed to an IT incident that occurred last year. Despite a surge in trading volume due to a booming stock market, resulting in a consolidated net profit of 708.9 billion won, the exchange reportedly received deductions for stability issues in market operations.
On March 18 of last year, the Korea Exchange experienced a trading system failure that disrupted stock trading on the securities market for about seven minutes. Notably, Dongyang Steel Pipe faced a unique situation where trading was halted for approximately three hours due to ongoing order reception errors even after the system was restored. Although the trading system was back online, the exchange suspended trading for specific stocks due to market management reasons and resumed trading around 3 p.m.
Meanwhile, the Korea Securities Depository has been reported to have received an A grade in this management evaluation, maintaining its excellent performance from the previous year and being recognized for its stable institutional operations.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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