[New Year's Address] Life Insurance Association President Kim Cheolju: "Operating Consumer-Centered TF... Proposing Easing of Capital Regulations"

Kim Cheolju: "Reviewing the Entire Insurance Value Chain Through a Consumer-Centered Task Force"
"Expanding Productive Finance... Actively Supporting Entry into New Markets"

Kim Cheolju, President of the Life Insurance Association, announced plans to operate a consumer-centered insurance task force (TF) in the new year to review the entire insurance value chain. He also stated that the association would support productive finance in line with government policy and work to strengthen the core competitiveness of the insurance business.

On December 31, in his New Year's address, President Kim said, "The pace of technological advancement, including artificial intelligence (AI), is faster than ever, and the nature and scope of risks covered by insurance are fundamentally changing. If the life insurance industry remains stuck in past practices, it will be left as a 'legacy financial industry.' However, if it leads the change, it can become a core platform industry for managing risk."

Kim Cheolju, President of the Life Insurance Association. Life Insurance Association

President Kim emphasized that in the new year, the association will actively pursue four key priorities: protecting insurance consumers, transitioning to productive finance, strengthening the competitiveness of the insurance business, and entering new markets.

President Kim stated that protecting insurance consumers would be placed at the center of the industry. He said, "Consumer trust and protection are not just regulations to be followed; they are the most fundamental values that determine the existence and sustainability of the life insurance industry. We will operate a consumer-centered insurance TF to re-examine the entire insurance value chain, from product development and underwriting to sales and claims payment."

He pledged to support the transition to productive finance. President Kim said, "Financial authorities are promoting a major shift toward productive finance, focusing on advanced strategic industries such as semiconductors, AI, and energy. This is an essential task for the sustainability of our entire economy."

He continued, "While our life insurance industry fully supports this goal, we also face the reality that it is difficult to actively pursue productive finance due to the prolonged low interest rate environment, uncertain domestic and international conditions, strict solvency regulations, and tight asset management rules. The association will continue to propose improvements to capital regulations and asset-liability management (ALM) rules in order to expand investment capacity for productive finance and reasonably ease the burden of solvency management."

Strengthening the competitiveness of the core insurance business is also a key plan. President Kim stated, "Changes in demographics, the climate crisis, and technological innovation are rapidly transforming the types and structures of risks covered by insurance. We will support the expansion of AI technology, which has been used in limited areas such as underwriting, claims, and chatbots, to broader applications in risk analysis, actuarial work, customer management, and sales activities across the insurance business."

President Kim also plans to actively support insurance companies' entry into new markets. He said, "We will establish legal and institutional frameworks to enable the provision of services directly linked to insurance in healthcare and silver care/nursing care sectors, and support the development of integrated service models to fill gaps in care. We will also promote the activation of trust services in the life insurance industry by strengthening the linkage between trusts and insurance products to alleviate the financial burden on families affected by dementia, and by expanding insurance products eligible for insurance claim rights trusts."