The capital adequacy ratio of Korean insurers has been deteriorating sharply amid a tightening and depressed capital market environment.
The net profits of South Korea's non-life insurance industry soared by 72% year on year in 2021 to a record-high of KRW3.7tn ($3.0bn), thanks to markedly improved underwriting performance, especially in the automobile insurance line, notes AM Best.
Samsung Life Insurance, South Korea's top life insurer, has disclosed that its 1Q2022 net profit plunged by 72.9% due to losses in its variable life insurance business amid recent stock market volatility.
Samsung Life Insurance Co, the country's top life insurer, has reported a 72.9% plunge in its first-quarter net profit due to losses from its variable life insurance business amid recent stock market volatility.
Lotte Insurance, the insurance wing of South Korea's conglomerate Lotte Group, is working with a service robot company to release an indemnity liability insurance plan for store owners who operate delivery or service robots.
South Korea's second-largest life insurer, Hanwha Life Insurance, has posted first-quarter net profits of KRW98.8bn ($77.8m), down 70.6% from a year earlier.
South Korea's financial regulator says it is tightening its screening of suspicious insurance cases as part of efforts to prevent the excessive disbursement of insurance payouts through overtreatment.
Kyobo Life Insurance's return on equity was about 5% for 2021, with a three-year average of 5%, notes Fitch Ratings. The company, which is among leading life insurers in the country, has been proactive in managing the cost of its negative-spread burden and continues to balance its portfolio mix by emphasising the sale of more profitable protection-type policies.
Motor insurers in South Korea posted an aggregate profit in 2021 for the first time, according to data from the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS).
South Korea's financial regulator yesterday gave its final approval for a digital insurance business by Kakao Corp in a move that could heat up competition in the fledging online insurance market.