Electronic gov't-bond trading expands 15-fold in 10-years

SEOUL, March 25 (Yonhap) -- Electronic trading of government bonds grew 15-fold since an internet trading system for treasuries was introduced 10 years ago, the bourse operator said Wednesday.

The annual volume of government bonds traded on the bourse's electronic system
came in at 813.7 trillion won (US$586.2 billion) last year, compared with 20.6
trillion won for the first trading year in 2000, the Korea Exchange (KRX) said in
a statement.
The operator set up the KRX System for Government Securities in 1999 to brace for
increasing sales of treasury bonds and to reduce trading costs. Currently, select
brokerages and banks are allowed to place orders on the electronic trading system
with a minimum trading unit of 1 billion won.
As of the end of last year, outstanding government bonds stood at 195.1 trillion
won, with electronic trading accounting for 34.8 percent of the total, the KRX
said.
The electronic system's success helped government bonds establish benchmarks for
other debt pricing and contributed to government debt financing by stimulating
treasury-bond sales, it said.