South Korea suspends margin collateral rule as Kospi rout deepens

South Korea will suspend the mandatory 140 percent collateral maintenance ratio on margin loans for three months to head off forced stock sales, after the Kospi fell as much as 8.8 percent on Friday and triggered a 20 minute circuit breaker.

Why it matters: An emergency easing of margin rules is Seoul's first direct intervention in the AI rout, and it signals official concern that leveraged retail positions could turn the selloff into a forced liquidation spiral.

Data as of Investing.com reports of November 5, 2026 (10:12 p.m. and 10:48 p.m. Eastern), read in full through the estate browser route after the direct fetch was blocked; the margin decision is attributed in that reporting to South Korean local media reports from an emergency financial market review meeting, and no primary statement from the Financial Services Commission or the finance ministry was read in this run. Single-sourced. Developing item.

South Korea will temporarily suspend the mandatory 140 percent collateral maintenance ratio that securities firms apply to margin lending, for three months, to prevent forced stock sales as share prices plunge, Investing.com reported, citing local media reports from an emergency financial market review meeting chaired by Finance Minister Lee Hyoung-il with officials from the Financial Services Commission, the Financial Supervisory Service and the Bank of Korea. Authorities said they would prepare further measures if volatility intensified.

The decision came as the Kospi fell as much as 8.8 percent to 4,911.28 in early Friday trading, its lowest since early February, before a 20 minute circuit breaker halted stock and derivatives trading; Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix led the losses. Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell as much as 7.1 percent, putting it more than 20 percent below its June record high and into bear market territory, while Taiwan’s weighted index fell 4.1 percent and Singapore’s Straits Times index dropped 2.4 percent.

South Korea suspends margin collateral rule as Kospi rout deepens

Sources