JPMorgan Chase Contrary to HSBC’s view on the deleveraging process in the South Korean stock market, regulators tightened rules on leveraged products ahead of schedule.

JPMorgan Chase Two investment banks, both affiliated with HSBC, released reports on the same day offering starkly different assessments of the deleveraging process in the South Korean stock market. JPMorgan Chase believes that institutional deleveraging has been “largely completed” or is “nearing its end,” that retail investor leverage risks are “relatively manageable,” and that the KOSPI index’s valuation has reached “crisis levels.”However, HSBC pointed out that the outstanding margin balance for South Korean retail investors (approximately $22 billion) remains “at elevated levels,” and that the contraction in the size of single-stock leveraged ETFs is primarily driven by capital losses rather than investors actively exiting the market, suggesting that the deleveraging process is far from over.Against this backdrop, the Financial Services Commission (FSC) of South Korea has moved up the implementation of measures—including tightening margin requirements for retail investments in single-stock leveraged ETFs and suspending the listing of new products—from the originally scheduled date in August to July 31. The KOSPI index has fallen nearly 40% since its peak on June 22.