우리나라 보험 규제·감독의 시대적 변천에 대한 평가와 미래 전망: 제도사적 측면을 중심으로

This paper aims to suggest future direction of insurance regulation in Korea through reviewing historical changes of insurance regulation and supervisory policies since the enactment of insurance law. The period after the enactment until the market opening was prevalent with government's protectionism, resulting backwardness and anti-competitive environment in the insurance market. Since the late 1980s, full-scale market opening began, but underwent mass failure of insurers caused by foreign exchange crisis. This result was largely due to the failure of government supervisory policy that focused on protecting financial institutions. Global regulation after financial crisis is being restructured into two major axis, prudential regulation and market conduct regulation. Global standards regarding strengthening supervision on financial groups, consumer protection, and risk management have been established. The direction of insurance regulation in Korea should consider consistency with global and financial-sector regulation, in accordance with global insurance environment and financial integration trend. Solvency margin regulation, categorizing into qualitative and quantitative assessments, needs to be revised considering the enforcement date of the U.S. and the EU. It is desirable to strengthen suitability regulation on investment products, and to separate the supervisory structure into prudential and market conduct, complying with the trend of consumer protection. Minimum capital requirement, the entry barrier, should be lowered to meet the global standard, and other entry requirements that lack objectivity need to be improved. Government's intervention of price-setting process through administrative guidance must be avoided, fulfilling complete liberalization. To boost competition in the insurance market, overhaul of legal system to improve dualistic competition environment, and the 'pool' program in the nonlife insurance market must be abolished.