How to Buy Korean Stocks From Abroad: Brokers, Accounts and Costs

Foreign individuals can now buy shares listed in Seoul without opening an account in Korea, through brokers they already use at home. In January 2026, the Financial Services Commission (FSC), Korea's financial regulator, lifted the limits on which overseas firms may open omnibus accounts, the pooled accounts that let a foreign broker trade Korean stocks for many clients at once.

By May 2026, Interactive Brokers was offering Korean equities to its clients through Samsung Securities, and Hong Kong's Futu followed through Hana Securities in July 2026. Foreign investors had traded more than ₩6 trillion ($3.9 billion) through the new accounts by mid-June, the Korea Herald reported on June 14, 2026. The dollar figure is the Herald's own conversion.

The doors opened during a volatile stretch for the market. The KOSPI, the main index of the Korea Exchange, rose 76% in 2025 and another 110% through June 2026, then retreated 30% from its peak by mid-October 2026, according to the Korea JoongAng Daily.

Here's what you need to know.

What Changed in 2026?

For about 30 years, a foreigner who wanted to buy Korean shares first had to register with the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS), the market watchdog, and obtain an investment registration certificate. The FSC abolished that requirement from Dec. 14, 2023. Since then, individuals have been able to open accounts with a passport number and companies with a legal entity identifier (LEI).

Registration was only the first hurdle, because a foreigner still needed an account at a Korean brokerage. In the six months to June 12, 2024, foreigners opened 1,432 accounts under the new rules, and 1,216 of them belonged to companies rather than individuals, the FSC said.

The omnibus account was meant to clear the second hurdle. Korea introduced it in 2017, but only an overseas firm that was a subsidiary or a major shareholder of a Korean brokerage could open one. Under a regulatory pilot, Hana Securities and Hong Kong's Emperor Securities opened the first omnibus account for foreign investors in August 2025, and the FSC published operating guidelines on Nov. 27, 2025.

The FSC lifted the eligibility limit in January 2026 as part of a government road map aimed at winning Korea an upgrade to developed-market status from index provider MSCI, Yonhap reported. On April 30, 2026, regulators also finalized rules that let overseas brokers identify clients with encrypted IDs instead of names and passport numbers, according to the Korea Times.

Kang Jin-hyuk, an analyst at Shinhan Securities, said that "the easing of omnibus account regulations has paved the way for direct inflows of foreign retail capital," the Korea Times reported on May 5, 2026.

How Do Omnibus Accounts Work?

An omnibus account is a single account that a foreign broker holds at a Korean brokerage. The foreign broker routes all of its clients' orders through it, so the clients never open an account in Korea themselves.

Under the FSC's guidelines, setting one up takes three steps. The foreign broker signs an agreement with a Korean brokerage, opens a custody account through a standing proxy, a Korean custodian that acts on its behalf, and then opens the omnibus account.

The foreign broker carries most of the compliance work. It must verify who its clients are, keep records of their trades in Korean stocks for 10 years and send those records to its Korean partner every month, according to the FSC. If unusual trading needs to be checked, the brokerages must hand over the investor's name and other details, the Korea Times reported.

Shareholder rights still reach the end investor. The Korea Securities Depository credits dividends to the omnibus account holder, which passes them on in proportion to each client's stake, and the holder can split its votes at a shareholder meeting when clients give different instructions.

Simply put, you trade Korean shares in the same app you use for other markets, and the Korean paperwork is your broker's job. The FSC said in its Nov. 27, 2025 release that "nonresident foreigners will be able to directly trade Korean stocks through local securities firms without the need to open a securities account with a domestic securities business." In that sentence, "local" means brokers in the investor's home market.

Which Brokers Offer Korean Stocks?

These are the main routes reported by regulators and the Korean press. Each service sets its own eligibility rules, so check the terms for your country of residence before you fund an account.

• Interactive Brokers, through Samsung Securities: The U.S. broker began a pilot in late April 2026 and announced the launch in May 2026, describing itself as the first major U.S.-based broker to offer Korean equities. Existing clients turn it on by enabling Korea Exchange market data and trading permissions in the broker's Client Portal. The service is not open to residents of Korea or to clients of the firm's Japanese and Indian units, and by July 2026 it had added Nextrade, Korea's alternative trading venue.
• Futu, through Hana Securities: Hong Kong investors have been able to buy Korean shares in Futu's app since July 2026, according to the Korea JoongAng Daily.
• Emperor Securities, through Hana Securities: The Hong Kong broker opened the first account in August 2025 and launched the service in October 2025. About 3,500 Hong Kong retail investors have entered the Korean market through Hana and its partners since then, the Korea JoongAng Daily reported on Oct. 13, 2026.
• Mirae Asset Securities: Its MAPS platform, launched in Hong Kong in June 2026, lets users trade Korean stocks.
• Webull, through Kiwoom Securities: Kiwoom, a major Korean retail broker, signed a similar partnership with U.S.-based Webull, Yonhap reported on May 9, 2026. The report gave no launch date.
• More on the way: Six more Korean brokerages, among them Yuanta Securities Korea, NH Investment & Securities and KB Securities, were preparing omnibus services in May 2026, the Korea Herald reported. Shinhan Securities, another of the six, was preparing a Hong Kong service through the international arm of China's CICC in October 2026.
• A Korean brokerage account of your own: Since Dec. 14, 2023, individuals have been able to open one with a passport number instead of a registration certificate, under the Korean firm's own onboarding rules.

"There has been strong demand from Interactive Brokers clients globally for access to the Korean market for some time," said David Friedland, managing director and head of Asia-Pacific at Interactive Brokers, in an interview with the Korea Herald published June 14, 2026.

"Demand exceeded our expectations from Day 1," Friedland said. He credited the Korean partner, saying Samsung Securities "was instrumental in advancing the regulatory pathway for omnibus accounts."

What Does It Cost?

Four costs apply to most foreign investors: the broker's commission, the currency conversion, a tax on every sale and Korean tax on dividends.

The tax on sales rose at the start of 2026. The securities transaction tax went from 0% to 0.05% on KOSPI shares and from 0.15% to 0.20% on KOSDAQ shares sold on or after Jan. 1, 2026, the Asia Business Daily reported. Sellers of KOSPI shares also pay the 0.15% rural development levy, the Korea Times reported on May 25, 2026.

Friedland told the Korea Herald that currency conversion remains a challenge. "Interactive Brokers focuses on providing real-time foreign exchange conversion with tight spreads," he said.

Dividends are taxed before they reach you. Foreign investors' dividend income from Korean stocks is subject to withholding by local financial firms, the Korea Times reported on May 24, 2026. Ask your broker which rate it withholds and whether a lower treaty rate is applied at payment or has to be claimed back later.

When Can You Trade?

The Korea Exchange (KRX) holds its regular session from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. in Seoul, and Korea does not use daylight saving time. Since Sept. 14, 2026, the KRX has also run an after-market session from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. with real-time matching of limit orders. Nextrade adds a pre-market from 8 a.m. to 8:50 a.m. and its own after-market until 8 p.m.

The New York and London times above are for winter. When those cities move to daylight saving time, the same sessions start one hour later on their clocks, so the KRX regular session runs from 8 p.m. to 2:30 a.m. in New York in summer.

Simply put, a London investor can trade Korean shares in the morning, while a New York investor trades them overnight, as long as the broker routes orders to those sessions. Nextrade's sessions cover about 610 stocks, according to the Korea Herald, while the KRX after-market covers all listed stocks except those under special market oversight, with ETFs and ETNs excluded at first.

One guardrail applies in every session. With a few exceptions, a Korean stock can rise or fall no more than 30% from its base price, normally the previous day's close, in a single day under KRX rules, and Nextrade applies the same price bands.

What Should Foreign Investors Watch?

Korean ETFs. When the FSC proposed widening omnibus trading in May 2026, the accounts covered stocks only. "We will expand the scope of foreign omnibus account trading from stocks to ETFs and ETNs," FSC Chairman Lee Eog-weon said at a press conference on May 21, 2026, as translated by the Korea Times. Analysts said the change could start in the second half of 2026 if the FSC and the finance ministry agreed on withholding tax and brokerages upgraded their systems, Yonhap reported.

Concentration. Hong Kong's new retail buyers have stuck mostly to two names: more than 90% of the investors' holdings are in Samsung Electronics and SK hynix, the Korea JoongAng Daily reported. "Korean stocks are only beginning to account for a small share of wealthy Hong Kong investors’ portfolios," said Steve Kim, head of the foreign investment solution department at Hana Securities.

Volatility. The KOSPI's 30% retreat from its June 2026 peak shows how fast a rally can unwind. With a daily limit of 30%, a single stock can lose almost a third of its value in one day.

The won. Korean shares are priced and settled in won, so your return in your home currency depends on the exchange rate as well as on the share price.

Together, the 2026 changes let a foreign individual hold Samsung Electronics in the same account as Apple, but the trade still runs on Korean rules: Seoul hours, a 30% daily price limit, a 0.20% tax on every sale and dividends taxed at source.