Insurers' Combined Net Profit Decreases 7.4% to 7.27 Trill. Won in 2018

Last year’s South Korea's insurance firms saw their combined net profit decrease by 580 billion won (US$517.86 billion), or 7.4 percent to 7.27 trillion won (US$6.49 billion), compared to the previous year,

The combined net profit of life insurers stood at 4.03 trillion won (US$3.60 billion) in 2018, up 121.90 billion won (US$108.84 million), or 3.1 percent, from a year earlier, according to the preliminary data from the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS). Their insurance sales made a larger loss. However, the investment income increased in 2018 from 1.10 trillion won (US$978.39 million) of gains on sales of Samsung Electronics’ shares, which was nonrecurring gains, and this mainly contributed to expanding net profits for the year. The combined net profit of non-life insurers dipped by 701.9 billion won (US$626.70 million), or 17.8 percent, on year to 3.24 trillion won (US$2.89 billion) in 2018.

The investment profit of non-life insurers grew by 556.60 billion won (US$496.96 million) but their insurance operation loss came to 1.39 trillion won (US$1.24 billion) due to an increase in the loss ratio of car insurances, dragging down the net profit.

The combined premium income of insurers amounted to 201.78 trillion won (US$180.02 billion) in 2018, down 525.10 billion won (US$468.84 million), or 0.3 percent, from a year ago. Life insurers saw their premium income fall by 3.23 trillion won (US$2.89 billion), or 2.8 percent, on year to 110.74 trillion won (US$99.14 billion). This was largely due to the fact that their premium income for saving insurances plunged by 5.24 trillion won (US$4.69 billion), though the figure for term insurances increased by 842 billion won (US$753.80 million).