The Korean insurance industry reported KRW3,788.3bn in net income for the first half of 2020, growing 6.45% from the same period of 2019, according to Korean Re. Non-life insurers’ net income increased by 15.5% to KRW1,715.6bn, driven by a reduction in underwriting losses of KRW158.8bn from the previous year. Life insurers’ net income declined by 2.6% to KRW2072.7bn, largely due…
Russia was planning a major cyberattack on the 2020 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games, which did not go ahead this summer because of the Covid-19 pandemic, according to intelligence collected by the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC). The NCSC also disclosed that Russia’s GRU military intelligence service targeted the 2018 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games in Korea. The NCSC…
Consistent favourable underwriting and investment performances by Taiwan’s non-life insurers, and their strong capitalisation, have seen AM Best assign a market segment outlook of stable to Taiwan’s non-life insurance market. This is despite some negative impacts from the Covid-19 pandemic. Best said that while many economies in the Asia-Pacific region continue to grapple with the challenges brought on by the…
The introduction of new rules to allow South Korean insurers to use coinsurance to cover interest rate risk as well as pure underwriting risk will clearly help alleviate capital pressures on the sector that have been exacerbated by the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. But credit ratings agencies will monitor how the new rules will be used to make sure…
Global financial institutions have been fined $5.6bn for non-compliance with anti-money laundering (AML), know your customer (KYC) and sanctions regulations in the first seven months of 2020, according to regulatory technology firm Fenergo. This is down 30% on the same period last year, but the company expects full-year fines to equal or exceed 2019’s $8.4bn total. Fenergo said financial institutions…
Merger and acquisition (M&A) activity in the Asia-Pacific re/insurance market made steady gains in the first six months of this year, with an increase from 31 for the same period last year to 38 deals in the first six months of the year, according to a new report from leading international insurance law firm Clyde & Co. Japanese acquirors once…
Global trade credit insurer Atradius has published four new reports, on the markets of China, India, Indonesia and South Korea, and expects rising insolvencies across the region as the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic continues to bite. Atradius points out that the coronavirus outbreak severely hit the Chinese economy in the first quarter of this year, immediately impacting retail and…
More than half of organisations around the world surveyed by the Business Continuity Institute (BCI) intend to diversify their supplier base post-pandemic, with the Far East set to be the biggest casualty. The research also shows that although most organisation did not have a plan in place to deal with Covid-19, the crisis has sparked due diligence further into supply…
The Korean insurance industry saw net income fall by 26.1% for the first three months of 2020, according to the Financial Supervisory Service. Net income for the first quarter totalled KRW1,466.2bn. Korean Re said the fall was a result of policyholders intent on hoarding cash amid the coronavirus-triggered economic crisis having increasingly surrendered insurance policies or failed to pay scheduled…
The South Korean government has revealed that it will lower reinsurance market entry barriers to promote greater competition for local insurer cessions, according to leading Korean business magazine Business Korea. The current Korean Insurance Business Act defines reinsurance in the same manner as standard non-life insurance such as individual motor and homeowner insurance. As such, reinsurers in South Korea have…