Cahirman Shin Chang-jae of Kyobo LIfe Insurance Co. (Photos: Kyobo Life)

Kyobo Life Insurance Co. has been working on reform since the start of this year, and to integrate Fintech into its new life insurance products.

Chairman Shin Chang-jae said in his New Year’s statement that the market situation is the same for every life insurance firms in the country, but what sets them apart is be how fast and well they invoke reform in their life insurance products and operations.

The chairman was telling the employees of the life insurance firm that any life insurance company should be able to reform its products and services, along with associated marketing strategies to be successful. They should reform the products and ways to market them so that they can better guarantee their customers.

Kyobo Life introduced the DIY (Do It Yourself) insurance product, allowing customers to choose based on their needs for insurance coverage during the different stages of their lives. “The life insurance product suitable for my life” was introduced early this year in line with Chairman Shin’s calls for reform of life insurance products and services for Kyobo Life to move a step up in its operation.

The life insurance firm has also been engaged in the search for new growth engines based on digital finance. The company set up a fintech promotion task force to take charge of finding a new growth engine in the area.

The life insurance firm has also been making an effort to improve its service for customers. Since 2011, the company’s financial consultants updating customers on new developments in their life insurance policies under its “Life-long Solid Service Program.” The objectives are to have customers get the insurance coverage they are entitled to in case they are sick or have accidents. 

The life insurer said some 1.5 million customers had access to the service every year since it was taken up by the company as part of its management plan to upgrade its customer service. 

Kyobo Life, one of Korea's top life insurance companies, along with Heungkuk Life and Hanwha Life, acquired a 41.3MW solar project in Kagoshima, Japan from Solariant Japan, a wholly owned subsidiary of Solariant Inc., and its partners including Yingli Green Energy Japan, a subsidiary of one of the largest PV module manufacturers.

In a deal transaction totaling 20.7 billion yen($172 million), Kyobo Life, Hanwha Life and Heungkuk Life completed an equity and mezzanine debt financing arrangement with Shinhan Bank and Mitsubishi UFJ Leasing to provide senior project debt. The consortium of Korean investors acquired full interest in Solariant Portfolio Two, LLC, which serves as the project established for development of the 41.3MW utility scale solar project, through KIAMCO's Kirishima Solar Fund Private Placement Special Asset Investment Trust. 

The Project Fund was set up in order to invest in this project and will be managed by KIAMCO, one of Korea's top asset management companies and a subsidiary of Korea Development Bank. The mezzanine debt fund will be managed Darby Hana Infrastructure Fund Management Company, a joint venture between Hana Bank and Darby Overseas Investments, Ltd.

More than 132,000 PV modules will be installed on the 41.3MW solar plant and will be managed by Genkai Capital, a Japanese asset management company with 228 billion yen under management, and Tokyo Energy & Systems Inc, which is partially owned by Tokyo Electric Power Company, the largest electric utility in Japan. The 41.3MWp solar plant is scheduled to be completed in the first quarter of 2017 and will feed over 50 million kilowatt-hours of solar electricity annually to power more than 16,000 Japanese homes annually for the next twenty years.

The two staffs of Kyobo Life talks about an insurance product.