SK Inc. C&C, the IT solutions unit of SK Group, said Wednesday that it will build South Korea’s first alternative trading system, scheduled to launch in the latter half of next year.

The IT service provider will construct a comprehensive operation and management system to support the trading, brokerage, solicitation and agency services for listed securities and depositary receipts that Nextrade will carry out with its official authorization in the following year.

Nextrade is an alternative trading system, or ATS, preparation corporate body jointly established by 34 firms, including the Korea Financial Investment Association and brokerages in November last year.

An ATS is a trading platform that matches buyers and sellers of securities, but without having authority over the listing and market oversight roles played by the country’s sole bourse operator, the Korea Exchange.

“We’ll build an efficient and reliable ATS that is comparable to a regular securities exchange operator,” said Kim Nam-sic, leader of a finance digital group at SK Inc. C&C.

“We will strive to make the country’s first ATS as a key system that contributes to the development of the domestic capital market by increasing investor convenience.”

SK Inc. C&C intends to build a comprehensive trading system necessary for the operation and management of the ATS. This is to include the development of a channel and matching engine system, which is essential for transactions such as market price information and order placements.

The upcoming system’s features will also include an information distribution system that processes investment information in conjunction with the KRX and the Korea Securities Depository, as well as a trading support system that handles various trading statistics and management.

The company will implement an extended trading service outside of regular trading hours for the ATS, allowing office workers that are interested in investing in stocks to trade conveniently and reflect post-market disclosures and overseas stock market opening situations in their transactions.

It will further build a disaster recovery center to protect ATS’ key systems and data assets and ensure its business continuity. A data backup system that can quickly recover from failures by shortening backup time in preparation for security threats will also be established.