Blue Ocean Applied sciences stated Tuesday it’s “totally ready” for the resumption of U.S. inventory buying and selling throughout Korea’s daytime hours, as Korean brokerages restarted the service following a 15-month suspension.
The U.S.-based different buying and selling system (ATS) additionally stated it’s welcoming again Korean buyers — certainly one of its largest buyer teams.
“Blue Ocean Applied sciences is happy to welcome the return of Korean buyers buying and selling on our refined platform,” stated CEO Brian Hyndman in an announcement to The Korea Instances. “The Blue Ocean ATS platform is totally ready for this growth and continues to increase its international presence.”
Beginning Tuesday, 18 main Korean securities companies resumed daytime buying and selling of abroad shares.
The service, backed by ATS platforms like Blue Ocean, permits Korean buyers to commerce U.S. equities throughout native market hours, from 9 a.m. to five p.m. The common U.S. buying and selling session runs from 11:30 p.m. to six a.m. (Korea Commonplace Time).
The service had been halted in August 2024 amid fears of a possible U.S. recession.
Blue Ocean, which solely dealt with Korea’s daytime U.S. orders on the time, unilaterally canceled pending trades on Aug. 5, 2024, amid a wave of promote orders. Roughly 630 billion received ($437.6 million) in transactions had been canceled, affecting roughly 90,000 investor accounts, based on monetary authorities.
Korean brokerages suspended the service on Aug. 16, 2024, citing investor safety.
To forestall future disruptions, Korean brokerages have now signed agreements not solely with Blue Ocean, but additionally with two extra U.S.-based ATS platforms — Bruce and MOON — to function backup suppliers.
Blue Ocean has since upgraded its system to enhance processing pace and buying and selling capability. The corporate additionally opened a Seoul workplace on Jan. 22 to assist native purchasers.
Throughout a go to to Korea on Feb. 6, Hyndman issued a proper apology to affected buyers and pledged to stop a repeat of the 2024 incident. Previous to the suspension, Korea accounted for 65 % of Blue Ocean’s enterprise.
“We consider that competitors (with different ATS) is wholesome for the in a single day buying and selling ecosystem, and Korea’s connectivity will assist drive total liquidity development in Asia Pacific throughout {the marketplace},” Hyndman stated.
Analysts count on the service’s resumption to accentuate competitors amongst Korean brokerages, that are looking for to seize extra retail buyers with rising demand for worldwide equities.
Within the second quarter, mixed fee income from abroad inventory buying and selling at Korea’s high 10 brokerages hit 472.6 billion received — a 60 % soar from a yr earlier. For the primary half of the yr, income reached 854.3 billion received, approaching the 1 trillion received mark.
“We plan to offer a wider vary of funding info and deal with constructing a secure buying and selling setting according to the prolonged buying and selling hours,” an official at Toss Securities stated. The agency is among the many 18 brokerages that resumed daytime U.S. inventory buying and selling companies this week.
