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South Korea to Expand Pension Portability: DC Plans to Allow Transfers to External IRPs
Finance · Investment Managers · yonhap_finance · 2026-08-24
Financial regulators are set to allow DC pension plan holders to transfer assets to external IRP accounts, including previously restricted funds.
What Happened
Policy Expansion: The Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) is planning to enhance the portability of retirement pension assets by allowing Defined Contribution (DC) plan holders to transfer their assets to Individual Retirement Pension (IRP) accounts managed by different providers. Additionally, the regulator is working to include previously restricted suspended funds in the list of transferable assets.
Process Optimization: To improve user experience, the FSS is exploring alternatives to the current mandatory voice recording requirement for non-face-to-face verification, which has been criticized for causing administrative delays. Furthermore, the agency will mandate that financial institutions provide detailed explanations to customers whenever a transfer request is rejected or canceled.
Implementation Timeline: The FSS aims to finalize the improvement plan by September and begin the necessary IT infrastructure development in October. This initiative is designed to provide pension participants with greater flexibility in managing their retirement assets and to foster healthy competition among financial service providers.
Market Performance: Since the launch of the in-kind transfer service in October 2024, approximately 15.9 trillion won has been moved through 250,000 transactions as of June 2025. Data indicates a significant shift of assets from banks to securities firms, with IRP and DC plans accounting for the majority of the transfer volume.