Bancassurance Is Taking Off In Korea

The three main insurers in South Korea's $55 billion insurance market are facing growing from local firms acquired by foreign buyers such as ING Group, Prudential and MetLife, according to a Reuters report. The foreign players claim a 32.1 per

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The three main insurers in South Korea’s $55 billion insurance market are facing growing from local firms acquired by foreign buyers such as ING Group, Prudential and MetLife, according to a Reuters report.

The foreign players claim a 32.1 per cent share of the local bancassurance market. The top three local insurers – Samsung Life Insurance Co., Korea Life Insurance Co. and Kyobo Life Insurance Co – have 39.3 per cent. The rest of the market is controlled by relatively small local insurers.

Premiums collected from bancassurance, which is currently limited to savings and pension products, are less than 8 percent of total insurance revenues, but the business poses a threat to traditional insurers already affected by online rivals, says the Reuters report, because Korean consumers prefer to deal with banks. Foreign insurers lack sales networks in Korea, but are profiting from partnerships with local banks to sell bancassurance products, whereas domestic insurers have relied mostly on sales agents. The combined market share of foreign insurers crept up to 13.6 percent in the life insurance sector by end-March from 10.5 percent a year earlier.

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