Investors will need at least 30 million won in cash, while stocks, ETFs and bonds will no longer qualify as substitute collateral. The Kospi is trading below the 7,000 mark on Monday. (Yonhap) South Korea said Friday it would move up the implementation of stricter rules on single-stock leveraged products after criticism that the measures would take too long to take effect.The Financial Services Commission said it would implement stricter minimum deposit requirements, originally planned for August, earlier on July 31 to help stabilize demand for the products.The FSC unveiled the measures on July 16, raising the minimum cash deposit required to trade single-stock leveraged products to 30 million won ($20,500) from the current 10 million won. It also decided to exclude substitute collateral, including stocks, exchange-traded funds and bonds, from the deposit requirement. Such assets are currently recognized at up to 70 percent of their market value.The higher minimum deposit requirement had initially been scheduled to take effect around Aug. 5, while the exclusion of substitute collateral was due around Aug. 19 to allow brokerages time to update their systems. The FSC said the timeline had been brought forward with the cooperation of relevant agencies and the financial investment industry.President Lee Jae Myung on Monday called for a faster rollout of the measures, saying at a Cabinet meeting that the government should take "swift and bold" action rather than delay implementation.Brokerages that fail to complete the required system upgrades by the deadline will be advised to suspend new transactions involving single-stock leveraged products.From July 31, investors will be required to maintain at least 30 million won in cash to make new investments or additional purchases of both domestically and overseas listed single-stock leveraged products.Brokerages will also no longer be allowed to relax the minimum deposit requirement after a certain period. Under current practice, they are generally allowed to lower the requirement after about three months based on an investor's trading experience.The FSC will also revise how cash deposits are counted toward the minimum deposit requirement. For single-stock leveraged products, proceeds from the sale of substitute collateral will not count as cash deposits until settlement is completed and the funds are credited to the investor's account.Currently, investors can sell substitute collateral and use the proceeds to purchase single-stock leveraged products before settlement is completed because the proceeds are recognized immediately for deposit purposes. Under the revised rules, the proceeds will only be counted as cash deposits on the settlement date (T+2).Loans secured by sale proceeds will also be excluded from the minimum deposit calculation.Separately, measures to strengthen tracking error controls will take effect on Aug. 19 after the Korea Exchange completes revisions to its regulations.The FSC also said it would discuss bringing forward a separate measure to increase the minimum trading unit for single-stock leveraged products to 20 shares from the current schedule of November.The regulator said it would continue monitoring market conditions and the impact of the measures and would consider additional steps if the market fails to stabilize.