Review for 'Samjeonnix Leverage' ETFs Twice as Fast as Usual

It has been confirmed that financial regulatory authorities and the Korea Exchange more than halved the listing review period for single-stock leverage ETFs, classified as high-risk products, specifically the so-called "Samjeonnix Leverage" funds.

According to data submitted by the Korea Exchange to the office of People Power Party lawmaker Park Dae-chul, a total of 16 single-stock leverage and inverse ETFs based on Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix took 28 days from the preliminary listing review application to actual listing.

This means that including weekends and holidays, it took 28 days from the time asset managers submitted their preliminary listing review applications to the Korea Exchange on April 28 until actual listing following reviews by the Financial Supervisory Service and other entities.

However, analyzing other ETF cases from the same data, the review and introduction period for 81 ETF products listed from January 2 to May 27 this year averaged 62 days.

This means the review period for Samjeonnix Leverage, which shook the domestic stock market immediately after its launch, was more than twice as fast—34 days quicker—than the average ETF review period this year.

While other ETFs took more than two months to launch, the single-stock leverage ETF products were rushed through review and released in less than a month.

Circumstances indicating that the listing review process was handled with unusual haste have been raised through official exchange statistics.

An official in the asset management industry explained, "It takes at least two months, and sometimes up to three months, to launch a single ETF product," adding, "Products with complex structures or pending issues can take even longer."

The preliminary listing review application date for the 16 Samjeonnix Leverage ETFs was April 28. Applying the average required period of 62 days, the listing date should have been around June 29. However, with the actual listing date set a month earlier at the end of May, some are raising suspicions that the product launch was pushed forward excessively to align with political schedules ahead of the June 3 local elections.

People Power Party lawmaker Park Dae-chul claimed, "It must be uncovered under whose instruction a product that plunged countless citizens into debt-financed investment and dragged the Korean stock market into a swamp of volatility was hastily processed in such an unusual manner."

Meanwhile, the exchange explained to lawmaker Park's side, "In the case of single-stock ETFs, the index structure is simple, so the listing review period was relatively short compared to other products," adding, "As investor interest was high, the asset managers' preparation period for listing was also shortened."

Reported by Kim Taewon | Video by Jang Yu-jin | Graphics by Yang Hye-min | Produced by SBS Digital News
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.