On Jan. 2, Shin Chang-jae, CEO and chair of the board of Kyobo Life Insurance, said at the "2026 kickoff gathering" that "protecting financial consumers through fully completed enrollment, full maintenance, and the rightful payment of claims is the active practice of the spirit of life insurance," adding, "we must take the lead in protecting financial consumers to fully secure customers."
Shin said, "we must break with unsound sales practices such as incomplete sales and conversion-and-replacement contracts that harm customers," and urged, "we must establish a system that can prevent financial consumer complaints and respond quickly when complaints arise."
He added, "we must effectively convey the value of customer protection at each stage across the entire policy period, including enrollment, contract maintenance, and claims payment," and said, "the most important value an insurer can provide to customers is protecting them from future adversity."
Shin also forecast that, for this year, the outlook for the domestic insurance industry points to a full-fledged decline in premium income growth and a slowdown in growth and profitability. He said, "some companies and insurance agencies are waging an indiscriminate race to recruit insurance planners, further muddying the market," adding, "we need to expand the ranks of excellent financial planners who can faithfully realize the value of customer protection and achieve growth in the exclusive face-to-face channel."
Shin also emphasized the shift to artificial intelligence. Shin said, "to respond in earnest to the recent move toward AI transformation, we expanded and reorganized our AI organization," adding, "across the entire insurance business value chain, we will pursue improvements in customer experience, expense reduction, and work efficiency by leveraging AI technologies."