Asian News - South Korea: Asia Capital Reinsurance wins approval for branch
Source: Asia Insurance Review | Apr 2016
South Korea’s financial regulator has granted preliminary approval to a Singaporean reinsurance company, Asia Capital Reinsurance (ACR), to set up a local branch.
The Financial Services Commission (FSC) said that final approval for the branch may be granted in a couple of months, reported the Yonhap News Agency.
“Given ACR met a set of requirements for doing business here in the initial review, the insurer will likely obtain final approval,” said Mr Cho Seong-joon, Deputy Director at the regulator’s insurance division.
ACR, which ranks among the world’s top 50 reinsurance companies, signed a memorandum of understanding with the Seoul city government last October to support Seoul’s plan to nurture the capital city as a financial hub in Northeast Asia.
ACR currently operates a representative office in South Korea, with branches in Hong Kong and Dubai.
The South Korean reinsurance market is dominated by sole homegrown reinsurer Korean Re and a handful of global reinsurance giants such as Munich Re and Swiss Re.
Korean Re holds a dominant 60% share of the Korean reinsurance market which is valued at KRW8.5 trillion (US$6.9 billion) in 2014.