South Korean insurance companies saw their net income jump 25.7 percent in the first nine months of the year from a year earlier on the back of increased invest­ment-related earnings, the financial watchdog said Friday.

The combined net income of local life and nonlife insurers reached 5.1 trillion won ($4.84 billion) in the January-September period, compared with 4.6 trillion won the previous year, according to the Financial Supervisory Service.

Life insurers posted a 24.1 percent rise in net profit to 3.08 trillion won over the nine-month period, while nonlife insurance firms net gained 28.2 percent on-year to 2.03 trillion won.

The watchdog said the strong bottom line was helped by increased investment income, as life insurers earned a cumulative 16 trillion won from investment, up 6.3 percent from a year earlier. Nonlife insurance firms also posted a 15.5 percent on-year increase in investment returns over the same period at 4.2 trillion won.

The return on assets, a key gauge of profitability, edged up 0.08 percentage point to 0.66 percent for life insurers, with that of nonlife insurers also gaining 0.16 percentage point to 1.49 percent. (Yonhap)