The Korea Exchange received a B grade in the Financial Services Commission's management evaluation for the previous year, marking a two-grade 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 for its 2025 management performance evaluation, while the Korea Securities Depository received an A grade.
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 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 control, 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 drop in the exchange's grade is attributed to an IT incident that occurred last year. Although the exchange saw a 67% increase in consolidated net profit to 708.9 billion won due to a booming stock market, it reportedly received deductions for stability in market operations.
On March 18 of last year, the Korea Exchange experienced a trading system failure, causing a rare disruption in stock trading on the KOSPI market from 11:37 a.m. to 11:44 a.m. After the system was restored, trading for Dongyang Steel Pipe was halted for about three hours due to order reception errors. The exchange suspended trading for the stock at 12:05 p.m. for 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.
Copyright ⓒ Aju Press All rights reserved.