DB Insurance has held on to the No. 2 spot in the auto insurance market for a third straight year, ahead of Hyundai Marine & Fire Insurance. Hyundai Marine & Fire Insurance kept the No. 2 position through 2022, but yielded it to DB Insurance the following year and has yet to win it back. As non-life insurers' auto insurance losses deepen, shrinking market share is likely to add further pressure.
According to the Insurance Development Institute on the 10th, total written premiums in auto insurance by domestic non-life insurers last year were 18.9989 trillion won. Of that, Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance had the largest share at 29%, followed by DB Insurance at 21.7%. Hyundai Marine & Fire Insurance (20.1%), KB Insurance (15.2%), and Meritz Fire & Marine Insurance (4%) trailed.
From 2015 to 2022, Hyundai Marine & Fire Insurance's share was ahead of DB Insurance. By 2022, however, the gap narrowed to 20.82% for Hyundai Marine & Fire Insurance and 20.77% for DB Insurance, and DB Insurance rose to No. 2 in 2023, with the gap widening since then. In 2024, DB Insurance's market share in auto insurance based on written premiums was 21.3% and Hyundai Marine & Fire Insurance's was 20.6%, a 0.7 percentage point (p) gap, but this year it has widened to 1.6 percentage points.
As auto insurance losses at non-life insurers worsen, declining market share can increase management burdens. Non-life insurers typically generate revenue by investing auto insurance premiums. Although Hyundai Marine & Fire Insurance's written premiums have been steadily increasing, if competition for share intensifies, the burden of business expenses such as marketing is also likely to grow.
According to the Financial Supervisory Service, insurers' auto insurance institutional sector profit and loss last year posted a deficit of about 708 billion won. The average annual loss ratio for the four companies—Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance, DB Insurance, Hyundai Marine & Fire Insurance, and KB Insurance—was 87.03%. The industry generally views around 80% as the break-even point.
In 2024, DB Insurance launched the industry's first service that charges electric-vehicle batteries on-site through emergency dispatch. Last year, it developed an artificial intelligence (AI) system that automatically determines fault ratios using dashcam footage, among other efforts to strengthen its auto insurance business.
An industry official said, "Competition among non-life insurers to expand written premiums is expected to intensify given the weak auto insurance market conditions."