Watchdog to force insurers to pay suicide benefits

The South Korean financial watchdog will reprimand a local insurance firm for not giving insurance money in cases of suicide, officials said Wednesday, prompting concerns that the move will promote suicide across the nation.

The Financial Supervisory Service discovered in an inspection last year that ING Life Insurance had sold a special disaster insurance policy that covers disaster-caused deaths as well as suicide between 2003 and 2010 when it changed the term to omit the suicide condition.

However, the company refused to apply the disaster provision to the policy holders who killed themselves over the cited period and instead, gave them general death benefits, according to the FSS.

As the amount of suicide benefits was twice as much as that of the general insurance payment, ING Life has not paid out some 20 billion won ($19.6 million) for 90 suicide cases.

The FSS said it will hold a disciplinary meeting next month to finalize the punishment on the insurer and order other life insurance firms to pay arrears for suicide cases.

“We’ve completed a comprehensive inspection of ING Life and will reprimand it early next month,” said an FSS official. “The disciplinary panel will review the ING Life case.” (Yonhap)