Foreign life insurers take up 17% of Korean market

Foreign life insurance companies operating in South Korea claimed 16.9 percent of the local market in terms of assets last year, industry data showed Wednesday.

The combined assets of the nine foreign life insurers reached 68.9 trillion won ($63.8 billion) as of the end of 2010, according to the data.

However, the figure is dwarfed by the 408.4 trillion won in total assets held by the three leading local insurers ― Samsung Life Insurance Co., Korea Life Insurance Co. and Kyobo Life Insurance Co.

The nine foreign companies’ insurance premiums stood at 16.7 trillion won, accounting for 20.7 percent of the total market. Net income came to 736.2 billion won, claiming 21.8 percent of all life insurers’ net income last year.

In the same year, the top three local players posted 80.9 trillion won in insurance premiums and 3.3 trillion won in net profit, the data showed. 

(Yonhap News)