A first for the won: a foreign investor pays for Korean assets without a Korean bank account

It sounds technical, and it is — in the way a door opening is technical. South Korea's Woori Bank said on 2 November that a foreign financial institution had, for the first time, paid in won for an investment in South Korea directly through a won account at Woori's Singapore branch — no account at a bank inside Korea required. It is the first deal under rules letting foreigners transact in won offshore, part of a steady opening that already brought round-the-clock currency trading. Small plumbing, large meaning: Korea's markets just became easier for the world to join.

SDG 8 · Decent work and economic growth — Mechanism: policy reform