Summary

Key Highlights
The life and non-life insurance market in South Korea is estimated to register a CAGR of approximately 4% during the forecast period.

Key Highlights
Korean life insurers, in FY 2018, witnessed their net incomes rising by 3.0% Y-o-Y, to KRW 4.03 trillion. At the same time, they recorded a loss of KRW 335.2 billion, a drop of KRW 10.8 trillion (103.2%) Y-o-Y, as the payable claims surged, while premium incomes decreased slightly. As the insurance business weakened and the guaranteed insurance risks diminished, the provision of liability reserves also dropped by KRW 8.66 trillion (27.1%), which helped reduce the operating losses. In the meantime, investment profits reached KRW 24.11 trillion, up by KRW 2.11 trillion (9.6%) year on year as a result of an increase in interest income and dividend income. Premium income in FY2018 decreased by 2.7% year on year to KRW 110.84 trillion, whereas claims paid in FY2018 increased to KRW 86.07 trillion, up 8.4% (KRW 6.63 trillion) compared to the previous year. There were 9.74 million new individual insurance policies in FY2018, up 1.4% year on year, recording KRW 252.77 trillion of new business value, down 8.0% compared to the previous year. the new business value of general annuity insurance sharply declined, while pure endowment insurance also plummeted by 32.0% to KRW 20.91 trillion.
In FY 2018, direct premiums written by general insurers posted 2.2% growth over the prior year amounting to KRW 80,287.0 billion. The net premiums earned2) increased by 2.6% over the previous year to KRW 78,875.7 billion. The amount of direct claims paid to policyholders in FY 2018 increased by 13.8% over the prior year, totaling KRW 33,474.2 billion. The amount of net claims paid increased by 13.0% over the previous year to KRW 31,753.8 billion. In FY 2018, the amount of net incurred loss increased by 3.6% over the prior year to KRW 65,137.3 billion. The Loss ratio rose by 0.8%p from 81.8% of the prior year to 82.6% due to an increase in the loss ratio of auto insurance (5.6%p) and P&C insurance (3.6%p) despite an improved loss ratio in long term insurance.


Key Market Trends

Constant Increase in Vehicle Sales

The number of vehicle registration has constantly increased over the past four years. Last year, it grew by 3.0 %, respectively 2.7 % for personal vehicles and 7.9 % for commercial vehicles, personal vehicles had the largest share with 80.5% in 2018, followed by trucks with 15.5 %, and buses with 3.6 %. Expenses incurred by automobile have decreased by 5.1 %. Automobile insurances have constantly been in deficit for a long time. Especially, the underwriting result of the automobile insurance has declined to the previous year, recorded -725 billion won in 2018 However, its growth rate declined since 2015 due to economic uncertainty.

High insurance penetration as per the percentage of GDP:

Insurance penetration in the Korean insurance market was a remarkable 11.2% in 2018 which placed it 5th in the world and 3rd in Asia. Much like insurance density, life insurance had a higher penetration rate at 6.1% compared to non-life insurance at 5.1%. Insurance density reached USD 3,465 in 2018 which placed Korea into 17th place overall in the world. Life and non-life insurance density totaled USD 1,898 and USD 1,567 respectively.

Competitive Landscape

This report covers the major players operating in the life and non-life insurance market in South Korea. The market is consolidated, due to the top three companies holding approximately 47% the total market share. The market is expected to grow during the forecast period.

Additional Benefits:

The market estimate (ME) sheet in Excel format
3 months of analyst support

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