보험업법상 기초서류 관련 의무 위반에 따른 과징금제도의 법적 쟁점

The current Insurance Business Act requires drafting and submission of ʻbasic documentsʼ from the approval stage for the insurance business and also requires compliance to matters listed in basic documents for the protection of insurance subscribers, wholesome management of insurance companies, etc. Furthermore, the Financial Services Commission can recommend change of basic documents to insurance companies and if it is recognized that there is a violation of laws related to basic documents or when it is recognized that there are contents that put insurance subscribers at a disadvantage, it can give orders to change basic documents or suspend usage. Also, in the event that an insurance company violates duties related to basic documents, it can levy fines within a scope of 50/100 of the annual income insurance premiums of the corresponding contract. However, when violating regulations related to basic documents, the Current Insurance Business Act applies uniform fining standards, and therefore, there are disputes related to procuring effectiveness of the fining system. In other words, despite the possibility that the severity and character on violating basic documents by insurance companies can be diverse and that there may be actions that highly need to be fined and behavior that are not so, the Insurance Business Act simply prescribes a s uniform standard of ʻless than 50% of the annual income insurance premiumʼ, and it does not set forth criteria according to the seriousness of the violation. It is for protecting insurance subscribers and to procure financial wholeness, which is the fundamental reason for making insurance companies responsible for basic documents. It is thus necessary to apply strict regulations on violating duties related to basic documents such as non-payment or reduction, etc. of insurance payments due to intentional or gross negligence. However, when it is not directly connected to grounds for levying fines such as innocent mistakes by insurance company employees, reprimands such as corrective action orders, etc. should be utilized to increase effectiveness of sanctions. For example, when the standard business method guide is not used, fines should be levied by limiting ʻcases that can cause damagesʼ for insurance subscribers, and in this case, it is necessary to set aside different ratios according to the scope and range of the actual damages. Furthermore, fines should not be levied based on annual income insurance rates, but when it is possible to compute the cost of the violation of basic documents, considerations should be taken to apply it based not on the income insurance premium, but based on the amount of violation. The Insurance Business Act does not provide detailed differentiation related to the contents of basic documents, and when considering the scope of the basic documents being very vast, it would be feasible to make reforms such as strictly levying fines when the insurance company ʻcauses damages to insurance subscribersʼ by violating ʻespecially important mattersʼ due to ʻintentional or gross negligenceʼ. Because 50% of the annual income insurance premiums according to the Insurance Business Act is excessive when comparing with other laws that oversee the grounds for levying fines such as the Fair Trade Act, it is necessary to procure fairness in standards for levying fines.