The long-term insurance market in Korea maintained its growth momentum in 2022, with direct premiums rising by around 5%. The continued growth was backed by strong sales of long-term personal accident and health insurance policies. The market also witnessed greater interest in long-term property insurance in the wake of a series of fire accidents over the last couple of years.

COVID-19 has had a positive impact on the long-term insurance market, lowering the loss ratio to some degree, as witnessed in 2020. In 2022, Korea experienced a severe resurgence of new COVID-19 infections, resulting in a drop in outpatient visits to hospitals for non-urgent treatment. Also, stricter claims adjustments in disease covers helped improve the loss ratio of the long-term insurance market.

In 2022, Korean Re reported KRW 2,746.9 billion in long-term insurance premiums, up 8.5% year on year. We continued to focus on writing more profitable risks by working closely with direct insurers to develop new products. This effort, as well as a decreasing loss ratio of medical expense insurance, allowed us to reduce our combined ratio before management expenses by 2.0%p to 98.5%.

In 2023, the long-term insurance market is forecast to stay on a favorable growth path, just like the previous year. Market growth will continue to be supported by rising medical expense insurance premium rates and intensive marketing efforts by insurers to sell newly developed products, especially those that target the elderly or people with chronic or pre-existing conditions.

In line with such market developments, we will remain supportive of our clients in terms of product development based on an extensive analysis of their product portfolios. We will also provide underwriting services and the necessary reinsurance programs, as well as risk transfer solutions, in a way that supports the sustainable growth of insurers offering long-term insurance coverage. As insurers have just transitioned to IFRS 17, we will make sure that our efforts are directed toward responding to their needs, such as providing risk management services and solvency capital relief, by being more attentive to their individual business profiles and conditions. With these efforts, we will seek to strengthen our cooperation with direct insurers to develop new products so that we can build a more profitable business portfolio.