Insurance firms' H1 net jumps 13 pct on rise in investment returns

Insurance companies in South Korea reported a 13% increase in net profit for the first half of the year, driven by higher investment returns, according to data released Thursday. The combined net income of 22 life insurers and 30 non-life insurance firms reached 9.01 trillion won, up 1.04 trillion won from the same period last year, as reported by the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS).

Life insurance firms saw a 17.7% year-on-year rise in net profit to 3.93 trillion won, while non-life insurers experienced a 9.6% increase in profit to 5.09 trillion won. The surge in life insurers' profits was primarily attributed to improved investment returns. Premium income for the sector totaled 134.93 trillion won, up 8.5% year-on-year, while the return on assets improved slightly to 1.28%, up 0.04 percentage points.

However, return on equity decreased by 2.75 percentage points to 8.52%. Total assets stood at 1,467.9 trillion won, an 9.2% increase from the previous six months, while total liabilities grew 3.2% to 1,213.3 trillion won.