KB Sonbo Auto Insurance 'Soars'... Long-term Insurance Hyundai & Meritz 'Stand Out' (Comprehensive)

Insurance Industry Booms Despite COVID-19 Impact
Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance Nears 20 Trillion KRW Annual Premiums

[Asia Economy Reporter Oh Hyung-gil] Despite the adverse conditions of last year, including the impact of COVID-19 and a downturn in the industry, the growth of the ‘Big 5’ non-life insurance companies continued. Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance maintained its throne by recording an all-time high with insurance premiums received from customers approaching 20 trillion won.

However, the chase is not easy. Meritz Fire & Marine Insurance was the only company to record double-digit growth.

KB Insurance had the highest growth rate in automobile insurance premium income among the five companies. Although the rankings of non-life insurers have remained unchanged for several years, competition by product category is expected to intensify.

According to the insurance industry on the 2nd, Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance recorded the highest gross written premiums (premiums received from policyholders) last year at 19.5485 trillion won, a 3.7% increase from the previous year.

Hyundai Marine & Fire Insurance followed with 16.4546 trillion won, up 10.5% from the previous year, DB Insurance recorded 14.0698 trillion won (8.0%), and KB Insurance recorded 10.9751 trillion won (6.8%). Meritz Fire & Marine Insurance is rapidly closing the gap with a 13.9% increase to 9.1524 trillion won compared to the previous year.

Samsung Leads Automobile Insurance Premiums with 5 Trillion Won... Hyundai and DB in Hot Pursuit

In the automobile insurance market, Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance’s gross written premiums increased by 12.6% year-on-year to 5.7847 trillion won, maintaining a commanding lead, but the other insurers are continuing rapid growth, narrowing the gap.

KB Insurance’s premiums surged by 18.3% to 2.6106 trillion won compared to the previous year, while Hyundai Marine & Fire Insurance and DB Insurance grew by approximately 14.6% and 15.9% to 4.0881 trillion won and 4.0678 trillion won, respectively. The market share of the four major companies in automobile insurance increased by 2.4 percentage points from 82.3% last year to 84.7%.

Meanwhile, in long-term insurance, Hyundai Marine & Fire Insurance and Meritz Fire & Marine Insurance showed remarkable growth.

Hyundai Marine & Fire Insurance achieved gross written premiums of 11.0937 trillion won in the long-term insurance market, showing a growth rate of 9.1%. However, Hyundai Marine & Fire Insurance’s long-term figures include retirement pension performance.

Meritz Fire & Marine Insurance also surpassed KB Insurance for the first time, with long-term insurance gross written premiums of 7.8945 trillion won (14.9%) compared to KB Insurance’s 7.2907 trillion won (2.9%).

In general insurance, including fire, marine, and special types, Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance maintained its top position with 1.5487 trillion won. DB Insurance recorded 1.2842 trillion won in premiums, a 14.2% increase from the previous year, overtaking Hyundai Marine & Fire Insurance (1.2726 trillion won) to take second place.

KB Insurance recorded 1.0738 trillion won, up 9.2%, while Meritz Fire & Marine Insurance increased by 7.7% to 551.7 billion won.

An industry insider said, "In automobile insurance, as key services have become standardized across companies, more customers choose based on price or ease of subscription rather than the company, making competition even fiercer," adding, "This year’s results will also vary depending on which product categories companies strategically expand their market share in."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.