Amendment of the Enforcement Decree of the Insurance Business Act to Enhance Accountability of Sales Channels

As we previously advised (link), the financial supervisory authorities had announced a "Plan to Enhance the Accountability of Sales Channels," as a follow-up to which the authorities announced, on January 15, 2026, proposed amendments to the Enforcement Decree of the Insurance Business Act and the Insurance Business Supervisory Regulations. The proposed amendments reflect enhanced requirements, including establishing an internal control framework, and providing expanded disclosures of information, which would apply to GAs, as well as corporate insurance brokers. The key details are as follows:

1.	GA Requirements Minimum business guarantee deposit amount and minimum compliance personnel to be set based GA size and maximum business guarantee deposit amount increased from the current KRW 300 million to 500 million.

Classification			Business Guarantee Deposit	Minimum Compliance Personnel
GA	Extra-large (3,000 or more agents)		KRW 300 million - KRW 500 million (inclusive)	5 or more
	Large	1,000 - 3,000 agents	KRW 100 million - KRW 500 million (inclusive)	3 or more
	Large	500 - 1,000 agents	KRW 30 million - KRW 500 million (inclusive)	2 or more
	Medium-sized (100 - 500 agents)		KRW 10 million - KRW 500 million (inclusive)	-
Individual	Individual insurance agency		Up to KRW 100 million	-

The head office of GAs must establish an internal control framework to ensure that it exercises control over its branches' operations, revenues/expenses, and execution of contracts with its agents.
Multiple registrations of GA officers and employees will be restricted to prevent abuse aimed at circumventing regulatory sanctions.

Business Standards for Corporate Insurance Brokers

New business standards and requirements applicable to large corporate insurance brokers will be established to ensure regulatory parity with GAs.

–	Corporate insurance brokers with insurance brokerage related revenues of KRW 20 billion or more in the immediately preceding fiscal year shall be designated as large corporate insurance brokers.

–	Large corporate insurance brokers will be required to establish internal control guidelines and to appoint at least one compliance officer.

The disclosure channel for corporate insurance brokers shall be centralized on the website of the Insurance Brokers Association, and large corporate insurance brokers will be required to additionally disclose key financial indicators, solicitation performance, commission information, and records of past regulatory sanctions, etc.

Requirements applicable to Insurance Companies and Insurance Associations

An insurance company may not transfer insurance contracts of a GA, if the GA has unpaid administrative fines or penalty surcharges, is under a business suspension, is subject to cancellation of registration, or if regulatory sanctions have not been finalized or are pending following a regulatory inspection.
Insurance application forms and insurance policies shall be required to additionally disclose the contract retention rate of the agent.
The policy surrender and replacement contract rate will be added to the Insurance Association's comparative disclosure items.

Opinions on these proposed amendments can be submitted by February 25, 2026. Thereafter, following review by the Regulatory Reform Committee, examination by the Ministry of Government Legislation, deliberation at the Vice Ministers' Meeting and approval by the State Council, the amendment will be completed by the first half of this year, after which it will be promulgated and enter in effect.

[Korean Version]

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