• Access to the South Korean market with USD-denominated futures contracts on the MSCI Korea Net Total Return Index starting on July 14.
• Korea accounts for nearly 11 percent of the MSCI Emerging Markets (EM) Index, making it an important market for international institutional investors.

Eurex, one of the world’s leading derivatives exchanges and part of Deutsche Börse Group, announces the launch of Futures on the MSCI Korea Index. With this launch Eurex provides efficient and cost-effective access to the Korean equity market, supporting international investors diversifying exposures worldwide on a single venue. Trading will start on 14 July 2025.

Eurex is currently the only derivatives exchange outside of Korea offering access to a Korean equity index.  As of 30 June 2025, Korea accounts for 10.73 percent of the MSCI Emerging Markets (EM) Index, ranking as the fourth-largest country allocation in the index, which captures large- and mid-cap representation across 24 EM countries.

The launch follows the conclusion of the clearing link between Eurex and KRX (Korea Exchange). While previously focused on KOSPI derivatives largely utilized by retail investors and market makers, the new Futures on the MSCI Korea Index cater specifically to the needs of international institutional investors. These are mainly asset managers and asset owners, as well as banks, seeking US-dollar denominated exposure to the Korean market within the MSCI framework, enhancing trading and margin efficiencies.

Ralf Huesmann, heading product design for MSCI Derivatives at Eurex: “As global leader in MSCI derivatives we now added a last major piece in the puzzle of our MSCI offering with the goal to cover all Developed and Emerging Markets globally. This allows global investors to trade all these markets with the same index methodology, similar contract specifications and bundled in one clearing house to be highly margin efficient.”

George Harrington, Global Head of Fixed Income & Derivatives at MSCI: “We are pleased to collaborate with Eurex on its launch of the first futures contract linked to the MSCI Korea Index. Designed to represent the performance of large- and mid-cap segments of the Korean market, this index suite is broadly used by institutional investors worldwide as a benchmark for Korean equity exposure. Its integration into index-linked instruments underscores the critical role that transparent and rules-based index methodologies play in supporting informed and efficient global investment decisions.”

Eurex lists already futures on 41 out of 47 countries, which are either classified as Developed or Emerging Markets by MSCI. With the addition of Korea, Eurex offers country futures on any market with a weighting of above 1 percent in either the MSCI World Index or the MSCI EM Index.

Currently, Eurex offers 146 MSCI futures, with approximately half of the trading volume focusing on the Asia-Pacific region. This regional focus is also mirrored in open interest, where 45 percent of the total open interest worth EUR 135 billion are linked to Asian underlyings.

Source: Eurex