South Korea's financial authorities will allow analysts to omit their names from research reports that contain sell recommendations, as part of measures to enhance the independence and credibility of brokerage research, according to a statement from the Financial Services Commission.

Analysts may choose whether to disclose their names when issuing sell recommendations, but must first obtain approval from their brokerage's compliance officer.

Brokerages will be required to keep internal records, including the names of report authors and details of the approval process.

The Financial Services Commission said that sell recommendations account for less than 1% of reports published by domestic brokerages, and it plans to take steps to reduce excessive reliance on buy ratings.