Interactive Brokers Powers South Korea DAOL Fi PRO Platform

Interactive Brokers provides the trading infrastructure for the South Korea DAOL Fi PRO platform as demand for overseas investment in Korea grows rapidly.

Key Points:

• Interactive Brokers is behind South Korea’s DAOL Fi PRO platform, while Daol Investment and Securities retains client accounts, regulatory duties, and investor protection responsibilities.
• South Korean individual investors held $210 billion in overseas securities at the end of 2025, up from $140 billion a year earlier, underlining the scale of demand the partnership targets.

Interactive Brokers Powers South Korea DAOL Fi PRO Platform

Interactive Brokers disclosed that it supplies the trading infrastructure behind South Korea’s DAOL Fi PRO platform, with Daol Investment and Securities retaining the client account and regulatory role. The app launched on July 10, according to Apple’s version history, though the formal announcement arrived more than six weeks later.

The partnership targets Korean retail investors seeking access to overseas shares through a locally operated platform. Earlier in May, IBKR had opened Korea Exchange-listed stocks to eligible clients outside the country, making the Daol arrangement part of a broader two-way Korea strategy the broker is building across the region.

Daol Keeps the Client, IBKR Provides the Rails

Clients access the service through Daol’s main Fi app, where they open an account, deposit Korean won, exchange currency, and activate overseas stock trading. They then execute trades through a separate Fi PRO application available on desktop and mobile devices.

Daol retains full responsibility for customer accounts, money management, service operation, and investor protection. IBKR acts purely as the technology partner, not as the account provider or service operator. Daol’s privacy notice names Interactive Brokers, Inc. and Interactive Brokers Hong Kong Limited as overseas brokerage intermediaries handling tax withholding, market-abuse checks, and overseas stock trades.

The product page currently lists eight available order types, including midpoint, stop-limit, and market-on-close orders, with more than 18 additional types planned. Those additions include IBKR‘s Adaptive algorithm alongside time-weighted and volume-weighted average price orders. The App Store description also confirms that IBKR’s SmartRouting compares major U.S. exchanges and dark pools during order execution, though price improvement carries no guarantee.

David Friedland, Interactive Brokers‘ managing director for Asia-Pacific, said the two firms aim to help expand access to global equities for Korean investors. Daol’s platform also lists more than 80 news sources and 5,500 research ratings, with Korean-language support for part of the market intelligence service due in a later update.

Korean Brokers Build Out Foreign Trading Access

The DAOL Fi PRO arrangement follows a pattern of Korean brokerages partnering with international platforms to serve domestic investors buying foreign shares. Webull and Meritz Financial Group announced a U.S. equities agreement in November 2025, using Webull’s platform alongside an Apex Fintech Solutions connection. Samsung moved earlier, launching a service with Blue Ocean Systems in February 2022 that allowed real-time trading in 8,000 U.S. stocks during South Korean daytime hours.

The product materials focus primarily on U.S. shares, though the announcement references global equities more broadly. The current tradable market list is not public, and the available figures differ across platforms, with Daol’s website citing roughly 70,000 stocks while the App Store description references more than 7,000 U.S. shares specifically.

IBKR Builds a Two-Way Korea Route

Beyond the Daol partnership, IBKR has been widening its own domestic Korean market access. The broker added South Korea’s Nextrade alternative trading system in June, building on earlier access to Korean derivatives products.

BC Lee, chairman of Daol Investment and Securities, said both companies plan to develop a long-term, two-way global investment platform, pointing to future derivatives access and direct Korean market investment services for overseas investors. No timetable accompanies those additions, and neither company disclosed financial terms, expected client volumes, or the full range of markets accessible through Fi PRO. Daol’s published online commission for overseas shares stands at 0.07%.

The broader demand context reinforces why both sides are moving quickly. South Korean individual investors held $210 billion in overseas securities at the end of 2025, up from $140 billion one year earlier, according to Bank of Korea data, a 50% increase that points to sustained and growing appetite for international equity exposure among Korean retail participants.

Also, visit the Stock Broker Talks website for more insights and Reviews.