There’s a new clearing agent in both the U.S. and across the Pond.

Korea-based Mirae Asset Daewoo Co., Ltd. has recently launched two new offices, expanding its global footprint into the largest Western financial marketplaces. According to Chief Financial Officer Daniel Hanuka, Mirae Asset Securities USA is the only Korean clearing firm in the US and UK.

Mirae Asset Securities (USA) Inc. (“MASI”) is part of the Mirae Asset Financial Group (“Mirae”), South Korea’s leading non-bank financial services firm.  As of June 30, 2018, Mirae’s asset management businesses had approximately $390 billion in total assets under management and its various broker-dealer subsidiaries and affiliates had approximately $7.5 billion in equity capital.

According to Hanuka, the U.S. registered broker-dealer looks to tap into the parent’s established relationships with affiliates and sister companies across the world to bring brokerage and clearing services to the U.S.

The brokerage seeks to initially grab a slice of the emerging and smaller hedge fund community that are overlooked because of their size by the larger brokers. It also seeks to expand its prime broker services to larger hedge funds.

“The US market is of particular interest to MASI due to a combination of a growing population of institutional investors worldwide and a lack of clearing firms that can cater to both large and small institutions,” Hanuka told Traders Magazine. “In addition, Mirae’s global network of affiliated entities allows MASI to become a “one stop shop” solution for the rapidly growing global needs of institutional traders.”

In 2017, MASI launched its self-clearing Broker Dealer in the US with the goal of providing the US institutional market place with a highly sophisticated level of service in areas that include prime brokerage, correspondent clearing, securities lending, repurchase and reverse repurchase agreements, agency execution, research and corporate financing.

The new New York office operates an institutional capital markets platform to service institutional investors with complex global needs.

To help it on the technology front, Mirae has partnered with FIS to provide a single-entry platform solution to manage investment businesses with multi-currency, dual entry, and portfolio accounting.