A wave of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) are being delisted in Korea as the market tops 500 trillion won, with cases emerging of ETFs forced out by regulations even after beating their benchmarks. According to the Korea Exchange (KRX) and the financial investment industry on the 24th, 11 ETFs were delisted this year. In early next month, three more from Korea Investment Management — "ACE TDF2030 Active Qualified," "ACE TDF2050 Active Qualified," and "ACE TDF Long-Term Asset Allocation Active" — are set to be suspended and delisted, bringing the cumulative total to 14. These three ETFs are being forced out after the correlation coefficient between their portfolios and benchmarks fell below 0.7 for three consecutive months. As of June 21 this year since listing, they produced excess returns of 2.80%, 6.64%, and 9.74% over their benchmarks, respectively. Their combined net worth is 100 billion won. A Korea Investment Management official attributed the widening gap to increased domestic stock weight amid market volatility from factors such as instability in the Middle East. Unlike passive ETFs (correlation coefficient standard 0.9), active ETFs aim to generate excess return, and outperformance can paradoxically drop the correlation coefficient below 0.7.