The number of lawsuits filed by local insurance companies nearly doubled last year, industry data showed on Monday.
The key reason was that insurers generally tightened their evaluation process and reduced the payout in order to cut costs, and customers reacted by increasingly overclaiming their insurance.
Insurers were involved in a total of 1,112 lawsuits last year, up 71.87 percent from 647 cases in the previous year, according to data by the Financial Supervisory Service.
Among these, 986 cases or 88.7 percent were filed by insurance companies.
The aggressiveness was more conspicuous in indemnity insurers than in life insurers.
Out of 953 lawsuits related to indemnity or nonlife insurance, 880 cases or 92.3 percent were filed by the corresponding insurer, while life insurers filed 106 out of 159 cases.
Dongbu Insurance Co., the nation’s third-largest nonlife insurance firm, was engaged in 163 legal cases last year, followed by No. 2 Hyundai Marine & Fire Insurance Co. with 143 cases and Meritz Fire & Marine Insurance Co. with 113.
Meritz was ranked No. 1 in terms of the growth in lawsuits with a 769 percent year-on-year jump.
Among life insurers, Hyundai Life Insurance Co. was party to 20 lawsuits, and Kyobo Life Insurance Co. was involved in 12 cases.
Amid concerns over the increasing number of lawsuits, financial authorities ordered insurers to make public pending litigations on the home page of their trade associations, starting next month.
“The revised bill of the insurance industry law, which bans insurers from profiteering through payouts, will be submitted to the National Assembly next month,” said an official of the Financial Services Commission.
“Should that law take effect within the year as planned, we expect the current abuse of lawsuits to decline.”
