SEOUL, March 26 (Xinhua) -- South Korean insurers' net income grew in double digits last year due to the adoption of new global accounting standards, financial watchdog data showed Tuesday.

Net profit of 22 life insurance companies and 31 non-life insurance companies totaled 13.36 trillion won (10 billion U.S. dollars) in 2023, up 45.5 percent compared to the previous year, according to the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS).

Net income for the life insurers jumped 37.6 percent to 5.10 trillion won (3.8 billion dollars), while net profit for the non-life insurers soared 50.9 percent to 8.26 trillion won (6.2 billion dollars).

The double-digit growth was attributed to the introduction of the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) 9 and the IFRS 17.

Sales increase in protection-type insurance for life insurers and long-term insurance for non-life insurers contributed to the better performance.

Premium income for the life insurance companies decreased 15.3 percent to 112.41 trillion won (83.8 billion dollars) on lower income from retirement pension as well as savings-type and variable insurances.

For the non-life insurance companies, premium income gained 4.2 percent to 125.20 trillion won (93.3 billion dollars) last year.

Return on assets (ROA) for the total insurers increased 0.40 percentage points over the year to 1.09 percent in 2023, but return on equity (ROE) slipped 0.20 percentage points to 8.02 percent.

The combined assets of the insurance companies shrank 6.5 percent from a year earlier to 1,224.6 trillion won (912.7 billion dollars) at the end of December last year, while the aggregate liabilities dived 13.4 percent to 1,058.0 trillion won (788.5 billion dollars). Enditem

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