Foreign insurance companies like ING Life, PCA Life, AIA Life and MetLife ranked in higher positions. The four foreign life insurance companies committed 50.6 percent of the all fraud cases and recorded 71.6 percent of the total damages. (image: Kobiz Media / Korea Bizwire)
SEOUL, Sept. 19 (Korea Bizwire) – A financial consumer organization warned more caution when dealing with foreign life insurance companies as they committed more financial frauds than Korean counterparts.
According to the Korea Finance Consumer Federation (KFCF)’s analysis on the status of financial frauds including misappropriation of 24 life insurers for the past three years, foreign insurance companies like ING Life, PCA Life, AIA Life and MetLife ranked in higher positions. The four foreign life insurance companies committed 50.6 percent of the all fraud cases and recorded 71.6 percent of the total damages.
The average number of financial fraud cases committed by the life insurance companies was 5.9 and in terms of amount, it was 764 million won (US$735,000) on average. Ten companies including Lina, Nonghyup, Dongbu, Woori Aviva, BNP Paribas Cardif, Hana HSBC recorded no such cases during the period. However, the other 14 companies committed 83 cases causing 10.7 billion won ($10.3 million) of loss.
By company, ING topped with 14 cases, followed by PCA. In terms of money amount, PCA ranked the highest with 3.12 billion won and MetLife (2.93 billion won) and ING (1.24 billion won) followed.
An official at KFCF said, “The frequent financial frauds mean there is a serious problem in their system. Consumers should make sure to keep receipts when they pay their premiums and be cautious when selecting such companies with many accidents in the past.”
By John Choi (johnchoi@koreabizwire.com)
