Casualty

The domestic casualty insurance market has enjoyed steady growth over many years on the back of personal accident and liability lines of business. More recently, demand for credit insurance has been on the rise, supporting the growth of the casualty market. In 2018, the market value rose by approximately 10 percent compared to the previous year. The implementation of compulsory insurance plans has created new demand in the liability insurance market. Disaster Liability Insurance was launched in January 2017, and Cyber Insurance is scheduled to be introduced in June 2019. However, premium rates have been going down amid intensifying price competition in commercial lines of liability business.   

Although this unfavorable rating environment worked against the reinsurance industry, Korean Re reported a 1.5 percent increase in gross written premiums from casualty lines for 2018. This growth came even after we cut down 10 percent and 9 percent, respectively, of our personal accident and liability business as part of our casualty portfolio readjustment. Main drivers behind the growth were the booming domestic credit insurance market and our rapidly expanding overseas business. We have also increased cooperation with our clients on product development so that we could not only drive our growth but also support our clients effectively and swiftly in response to evolving market needs and regulatory changes.

We have continued to focus on writing more profitable overseas business in a way that expands our presence in the global market. The share of our overseas business remained relatively small, but the pace of growth has been quite exceptional. Special risks made up the largest part of the total casualty premiums at 27 percent, followed by personal accidents at 24 percent and liability lines of business at 22 percent.

The casualty reinsurance market in Korea does not look promising in 2019 because primary insurers are likely to maintain their aggressive retention strategies. This may pose a setback to our business, but we will continue to make sure that we remain relevant to, and supportive of, our clients by monitoring and responding to their needs. Globally, we will seek to identify target risks and markets in order to broaden our business portfolio that is currently weighted toward Asia by further increasing our business in the U.S. and Europe. In doing so, we will ensure that a conservative underwriting approach is maintained so as to achieve profitable growth.

Gross Written Premiums: Casualty

(Units: KRW billion, USD million)

-Individual figures may not add up to the total shown due to rounding.