[Asia Economy Reporter Changhwan Lee] The Korea Insurance Research Institute announced that it held a seminar on the theme of 'Embedded Finance and Insurance' on the afternoon of the 28th at the Lotte Hotel in Sogong-dong, Seoul, in celebration of 'Korea Fintech Week 2022,' the largest fintech event in Korea.
Research Fellow Jaehee Son of the Korea Insurance Research Institute gave a presentation titled 'What is Embedded Insurance?'
Embedded insurance is a consumer-centric insurance product that helps generate natural insurance consumption in consumers' daily lives. For example, a travel agency embedding travel insurance when selling airline tickets.
Research Fellow Son highlighted the potential expansion of embedded insurance into healthcare, general manufacturing, and service industries in the future, emphasizing the need for proactive preparation in various business models, regulations, and consumer protection aspects.
He cited factors that have brought embedded insurance to the forefront, including advancements in embedded insurance support solutions due to IT technology development, regulatory relaxation allowing integration of non-financial and financial sectors, changes in consumer consumption behavior, and increased demand for comprehensive financial services.
The reason embedded insurance should be noted is that it offers insurance companies opportunities to create new customer touchpoints and new businesses, non-financial businesses chances to increase added value, and consumers a seamless insurance consumption experience.
The second presenter, Kwanghyun Lee, CEO of OpenPlan, introduced domestic cases and technologies of embedded insurance under the theme 'Introduction and Development Direction of Embedded Insurance Business,' and suggested future development directions focusing on the core values of embedded insurance.
He explained that unlike traditional insurance, embedded insurance combines insurance with the demand based on financial consumers' consumption activities, thereby omitting the insurance product search journey.
He added that embedded insurance covers protection gaps in everyday life areas and reduces marketing costs, enabling the provision of more reasonably priced insurance services.
In Korea, it is provided in the form of micro short-term insurance, which aligns with the policy authorities' trend of expanding life-close micro short-term insurance.
Examples include travel insurance (travel product sales platforms), electronic device damage insurance (electronic device manufacturers), and pet insurance (pet-dedicated platforms).
Following this, Professor Misu Choi of Seoul Digital University gave a presentation titled 'Embedded Insurance and Consumer Protection.'
Professor Choi emphasized that excessive entry regulations and sales activity regulations could hinder the development of embedded insurance, which can enhance consumer benefits, but careful examination of various issues from the perspective of financial consumer protection is necessary.
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