Bank of Korea Surveys 31 Firms on Virtual-Asset Business and Risks

South Korea’s central bank is assessing how local banks and securities firms could be affected by a major incident at the country’s largest virtual-asset exchange by market share.

The Bank of Korea sent the questionnaire Oct. 23 to 18 banks and 13 securities firms, including South Korea’s five largest lenders. It asks each institution to describe the organization and budget behind its virtual-asset work, its current market-entry status, its business risk assessments and the measures it uses to manage those risks.

The survey examines several hypothetical shocks. They include a large-scale hack that temporarily stops the exchange’s operations, sharp declines in virtual-asset prices, including Bitcoin, and a prolonged drop in trading volume.

Another scenario asks institutions to consider major losses at a different financial institution tied to a virtual-asset event. The questionnaire covers both firms’ own market-entry activity and the possible effects of disruptions elsewhere in the sector.