Domestic insurers' net income for the first quarter rose to 4.4817 trillion won, up 389.6 billion won (9.5%) from a year earlier. Life insurers saw a sharp improvement in results on the back of better investment gains and a swing to a surplus in non-operating income, while non-life insurers posted a decline in net income due to weaker investment gains.
According to the Financial Supervisory Service's released "First-quarter 2026 insurer operating results," life insurers' net income was 2.3761 trillion won, up 686.2 billion won (40.6%) from a year earlier. Life insurers' underwriting result was 1.0706 trillion won, down 86.8 billion won (7.5%) from a year earlier, reflecting a deterioration due to negative expense assumptions. In contrast, investment gains rose 457.7 billion won (45.5%) to 1.4630 trillion won, helped by higher interest and dividends and one-off asset disposal gains.
Non-life insurers' net income was 2.1056 trillion won, down 296.6 billion won (12.3%) from a year earlier. Their underwriting result was 1.9562 trillion won, up 5 billion won (0.3%) year over year. However, investment gains fell to 1.0975 trillion won, down 229.4 billion won (17.3%) from a year earlier, affected by bond valuation losses from rising interest rates. Non-operating income also widened from a 17.9 billion won loss a year earlier to a 97.9 billion won loss.
As of the end of March, insurers' total assets stood at 1,353.9 trillion won, up 9.8 trillion won (0.7%) from the end of last year. Life insurers' total assets rose 10.2 trillion won (1.1%) to 968.1 trillion won, while non-life insurers' total assets fell 500 billion won (0.1%) to 385.8 trillion won. Total liabilities came to 1,164.9 trillion won, down 10.8 trillion won (0.9%) overall. Life insurers' liabilities decreased 6.1 trillion won (0.7%) to 849.6 trillion won, and non-life insurers' liabilities fell 4.7 trillion won (1.5%) to 315.3 trillion won.
The Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) said first-quarter net income increased on some improvement in investment gains, but growth slowed when excluding one-off gains. It noted that underwriting performance remains weak due to factors such as negative expense variance from higher loss ratios, making it critical to manage underwriting results through reasonable actuarial assumptions.