Siebert Financial Corp. and Kakao Pay Securities Advance Partnership to Expand International Market Access

CEO-directed visit to Seoul focuses on collaborative cross-border brokerage, investor tools, and next-gen infrastructure

NEW YORK and SEOUL, South Korea, Aug. 26, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Siebert Financial Corp. (Nasdaq: SIEB) today confirmed senior-level working sessions with Kakao Pay and Kakao Pay Securities on August 20–21 in Pangyo and Yeouido. The visit was directed by Siebert CEO John J. Gebbia to expand and deepen a partnership that supports clients in South Korea and the United States, thanks chiefly to the support of Siebert’s senior board member Charles Zabatta.

John J. Gebbia, CEO of Siebert Financial. “Kakao Pay brings mobile scale and a trusted consumer platform. Siebert brings regulated market access and product expertise. Together, we are mapping practical ways to help more people invest across markets with confidence, including solid technology and a forward-looking AI-integration.”

“This collaboration meeting was a meaningful opportunity to lay the foundation for cooperation that combines South Korea’s mobile innovation with the U.S.’s expertise in financial infrastructure,” said Shin Ho-cheol, CEO of Kakao Pay Securities and board member of Siebert Financial Corp.

The companies aligned on three collaborative workstreams:

• Cross-border brokerage: access to U.S. equities, securities landing, ETFs and options for South Korean investors – including managed portfolios and capital markets opportunities – with resilient order routing and clearing.
• Investor experience with AI support: research, insights, and trading assistance designed to be useful, transparent, and foster financial literacy.
• Next-generation infrastructure: future-ready rails that can enable digital finance capabilities in line with regulation, including access to digital assets, in particular STO (Security Token Offering).

“We are approaching this partnership with respect for each team’s strengths,” said David Gebbia, Principal at Siebert Financial and CEO of Gebbia Media. “We want to co-design services that feel simple for clients, integrate strongly, and meet supervisory requirements on both sides. This is about building together.”

Early collaboration is already in motion:
– International trading opportunities accessible via Siebert are already operational for eligible clients, with integration work led by Anthony Palmeri, Senior Managing Director at Siebert. “International clients want simple access to U.S. markets with the same confidence they have at home. Our joint teams are connecting order routing, clearing, FX, Securities Landing and Equity Options,” comments Palmeri.

– A daily U.S. market analysis by Mark Malek, Chief Investment Officer at Siebert, is live within Siebert’s channels and will soon be shared with Kakao Pay Securities’s 8 million users.

– Digital Assets access, including securities tokenization, led by the deep expertise in the sector of Siebert’s Chief Legal Officer, Ralph Daiuto.

Joint working groups are being set up across technology, client experience, supervision, and regulatory review in each market, in preparation for launching.