Tuesday, July 8th, 2014
SEOUL, KOREA - Korean Re, Korea's only reinsurance company, is expanding in the overseas market rapidly through its Singapore office. Reinsurance is insurance that is purchased by an insurance company from one or more other insurance companies as a means of risk management. In a market dominated by giants like Munich Re and Swiss Re, Korean Re is ranked No. 9 in terms of assumed reinsurance volume.
Korean Re's overseas sales revenue share of 23 percent (as of 2013) is highest among Korea's financial service providers. Won Jong-Gyu, Korean Re CEO, said, "We will bring up the share to 80 percent by 2050. To that end, we will take full advantage of Singapore that imposes lower corporate taxes on reinsurance businesses won overseas."
The reinsurer has expanded the range of business toward India, Pakistan, Australia, and New Zealand from the major countries of Southeast Asia such as Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, and Singapore. The sales revenue of the Singapore office last year was US$49.48 million (61.86 million Singaporean dollars), with an annual average growth rate for the past ten years at 15.7 percent.
According to the company, one of the success factors was faster claims processing that reduced the time to one month from the usual time of one year for large-scale disasters. Han Jong-seon, Korean Re's head of the Singapore office, said, "As Chinese investment flows in to the Southeast Asian market, the reinsurance market in the area is growing fast."
