SK to loosen barriers for reinsurers
South Korea’s Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) is to lower entry barriers for reinsurers, in the hope of energising the local market with the admission of new players.
The FSC announced its intention on 4 June. Part of the impetus behind the decision is to make the non-life insurance segment in South Korea more competitive, as currently it is heavily dominated by Korean Re. Domestic non-life insurers, according to the FSC, who simply follow the premium rates set down by reinsurers or by the Korea Insurance Development Institute, so there is at best very little competition between them.
Insurance laws will need to be altered in order to accommodate this liberalising move; amendments will be drafted and tabled by the end of the first half of 2018, with the FSC hoping that it can be enacted by the end of the year.