S&P DJI looks to Korea to test new investment strategies

Product chief says sophisticated investors and inventive financial firms make Korea launchpad for global innovation

South Korea is becoming a launchpad for investment innovation, with S&P Dow Jones Indices introducing some of its newest strategies here before other markets, a senior executive said.

Sophisticated investors and inventive financial firms make Korea a valuable testing ground for products ranging from multi-asset and covered call strategies to thematic indices, according to Cameron Drinkwater, chief product and operations officer at S&P DJI.

“It is a very important market for us not only because it is growing so quickly but also because of the amount of innovation that has been originating here,” Drinkwater told The Korea Herald in central Seoul on Tuesday.

Drinkwater visited Seoul for Korea Premium Weeks, where she delivered a keynote address on global exchange-traded fund trends and the market’s outlook.

She said Korean investors have a “high acumen around how to invest and how to use what we would think of as more advanced strategies,” making the country a “great test market.”

The appeal extends beyond demand. Korean clients’ approaches to launching products can inform how S&P DJI adapts global investment methodologies for other domestic markets.

“Our clients here are coming up with how to go to market with some of these strategies really innovatively,” she said.

That appetite for innovation also shapes S&P DJI’s approach to tokenized investing, which brings exposure to traditional assets onto blockchain networks.

Drinkwater said Korea’s strong retail adoption of crypto points to demand for features that could increasingly become standard expectations across investments: round-the-clock access, holdings consolidated in one digital wallet and the ability to buy small fractions of assets.

“What we believe is, generationally in particular, these unique attributes of on-chain investing are going to become expected no matter what the underlying technology is that supports them,” she said.

For S&P DJI, that supports bringing indices such as the S&P 500 onto blockchain networks, giving investors access to familiar benchmarks through a different investment infrastructure.

“As a result, we believe bringing our indices on chain to access some of those same features that people love about crypto investing makes a lot of sense.”

Regulatory clarity will be essential to that shift. Drinkwater said Korea’s efforts to establish rules for digital assets, including tokenization, had impressed the index provider.

“We have been so impressed at how ambitious the Korean regulatory landscape is in terms of trying, over 2026 and maybe even into early 2027, to tackle some of these big outstanding unknowns,” she said.

Clear rules help investors and market participants commit with confidence that they are complying with regulations, she added.

Drinkwater joined S&P DJI in 2019 and previously served as its chief financial officer. She now oversees product innovation and the modernization of its delivery operations.