SEOUL, March 20 (Korea Bizwire) — The popularity of professional indemnity insurance products is rapidly increasing in Korea.
The size of the professional indemnity market, calculated as the overall sum of the original premiums, was 115 billion won (US$ 102.4 million) in 2008 and 140 billion won (US$ 124.7) in 2012. It has been growing at an annual rate of 4.2 percent and is expected to reach 160 billion won (US$ 142.5 million) this year, according to a report published by the Korea Insurance Development Institute (KIDI) on March 19.
In 2012, 35 percent of the overall professional indemnity insurance subscribers were executives, while 25.6 percent were doctors. The shares for CPAs and financiers were 3.5 percent and 1.9 percent respectively, while lawyers and tax accountants accounted for 0.4 percent and 0.2 percent.
Kwon Soon-il, the author of the report, said that the Korean professional indemnity insurance market is still in its infancy, and has the potential to grow more than 500 percent and become a 1 trillion won (US$ 890.7 million) business, amidst an increase in the number of lawyers and tax accountants, and the rising number of medical disputes in Korea.
By J. W. Choi (summerchoi@koreabizwire.com)