Go Seung-beom "Insurance Companies Expand Concurrent and Ancillary Businesses... Also Allow Participation in Open Banking"

Seungbeom Ko, Financial Services Commission Chairman, Holds First Meeting with Insurance Industry

On the 3rd, Go Seung-beom, Chairman of the Financial Services Commission, held his first meeting since taking office with insurance company CEOs and related organizations at Lotte Hotel in Jung-gu, Seoul, where they discussed the role of the insurance industry as a private safety net, strengthening consumer protection, and measures to enhance competitiveness.

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Sun-mi] Financial authorities are set to ease the 'one company, one license' principle to support the insurance industry's establishment of diverse business and organizational models. It is expected that concurrent and auxiliary businesses related to insurers' new ventures will be broadly recognized.

On the 3rd, Ko Seung-beom, Chairman of the Financial Services Commission, held the first insurance industry meeting attended by insurance CEOs and experts from related organizations to discuss the development direction and key issues of the insurance industry, outlining the blueprint for 'Insurance Industry 2030.'

Chairman Ko, who mentioned that "a comprehensive review of the insurance process is necessary," said that to strengthen insurance's role as a private safety net, a policy consultative body for sustainable indemnity insurance will be formed to deeply discuss improvement plans for indemnity insurance and non-reimbursable expense management. Coordination with related ministries to promote infectious disease insurance, diversification of pension insurance product structures, and strengthening the linkage between the integrated pension portal and Insurance Damoa will also be considered.

Additionally, support will be provided for building various business and organizational models so that insurers can respond flexibly to changes.

Chairman Ko stated, "We will create and implement specific standards to relax the 'one company, one license' principle for business models that are sufficiently differentiated by product, channel, and customer," adding, "We also plan to steadily proceed with licensing for small-amount short-term insurance to foster creative and lifestyle-oriented insurance services." Concurrent and auxiliary businesses related to insurers' new ventures, such as prepaid electronic payment services necessary for platform-based total healthcare services, will be broadly recognized. Innovative financial services using mobile platforms for product explanations will also be reviewed for regulatory relaxation based on operational performance.

Growth as a comprehensive healthcare financial platform through digital financial innovation will also be supported.

To enable insurers to launch various healthcare services, broad subsidiary reporting standards will be established, and investments in healthcare startups through joint ventures will be actively promoted. Insurers will be allowed to participate in open banking, and the allowance of payment instruction transmission services will be reviewed during amendments to the Electronic Financial Transactions Act, supporting insurers' apps to function as 'one app in daily life.'

Furthermore, measures to strengthen GA (General Agency) sales responsibility will be promptly prepared to enhance insurers' control and accountability over GAs, while improving the effectiveness of sanctions against GAs that violate laws.

Chairman Ko emphasized, "Consumer protection and customer trust must be prerequisites for this," and added, "We will also sufficiently consider activating competition among platforms to prevent the adverse effects of platform monopolies from the consumer perspective."

Meanwhile, insurance industry representatives attending the meeting agreed on the need to strengthen safety nets against new risks such as entering a super-aged society and climate change, and requested institutional improvements to resolve regulatory arbitrage between big tech and financial sectors, support platform businesses, and new ventures in healthcare and nursing services.

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