Anna Jiwon Park has been covering the politics at The Korea Times since the summer of 2024, when she joined the press pool for the Office of the President in Korea. Prior to that, she spent about five years reporting extensively on financial markets, regulatory authorities and the financial industry. She joined The Korea Times in 2019 after spending eight years as a broadcast journalist at Arirang TV, Korea’s leading global broadcaster, covering politics, defense and culture.
Financial authority seeks to promote pet insurance
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By Anna J. Park
By Anna J. Park
A pan-government task force team to promote the local pet insurance market will be launched next month, as the Yoon administration aims to fulfill its pledge of invigorating the pet insurance market, which was one of the Yoon government's 110 national task agenda items.
While the Financial Services Commission (FSC) will be easing up on its insurance licensing regulation, the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs will be conducting a nationwide survey on medical expenses at veterinary clinics. The result of the survey is slated to be announced early next year and based on the findings, the government aims to standardize vet clinic services' treatment procedures from 2024.
Both the insurance industry and veterinary clinics welcome the move, as they see the pet-related treatment market growing further due to the government's moves.
Once the insurance licensing regulation is eased, it is expected that insurance companies could set up a subsidiary that only focuses on providing pet insurance products.
“Currently, the regulation allows only one insurance license per company. However, the financial authority is mulling over easing up on the regulation so that companies could set up subsidiaries focusing on pet insurance plans,” an official from the FSC said during a policy seminar hosted by ruling party lawmaker Rep. Her Eu-na last week.
Vet clinics, meanwhile, anticipate that their revenues will increase with a reduced burden on medical expenses with pet insurance products. However, it is expected to be a long process to come up with government-led standardized costs for these vet clinics. The insurance industry argues that the standardization of medical expenses at vet clinics is a prerequisite for providing a wider range of insurance benefits.
Despite the fact that the number of people who raise pets in Korea is fast increasing to some 15 million, less than one percent of the people have purchased pet insurance products in the country.
According to a report by KB Research Center, a total of 14.4 million people ― or 6 million households ― were found to be raising a pet last year. Yet, the number of pet insurance plans sold was only 59,766 last year. Given that the number of pets raised in Korean households is estimated at around 7.97 million, only 0.7 percent of them are on pet insurance plans.
Currently, Meritz Fire and Marine Insurance take up the largest market share of some 70 percent of pet insurance products, while other major non-life companies, including Samsung Fire and Hyundai Marine, DB Insurance and KB Insurance, are also competing in the market.