Net profit down 96.8% from a year earlier
Investment losses turn negative; insurance profit falls 35.8%
New-contract CSM surges 95.5%
NH Nonghyup Life Insurance disclosed Wednesday that its cumulative net profit for the first three quarters of 2026 came to 6.8 billion won ($5.13 million), a 96.8% drop from 210.9 billion won in the same period last year.
Both insurance profit and investment profit declined. Cumulative insurance profit fell 35.8%, or 109.6 billion won, to 196.6 billion won from 306.2 billion won a year earlier. The company said the decrease reflected revised expense assumptions that narrowed the gap between projected and actual costs while increasing loss contract expenses. Investment profit swung to a loss of 91.7 billion won — a deterioration of 164.6 billion won from a gain of 72.9 billion won in the same period last year — as rising interest rates reduced valuation gains on invested assets and pushed up insurance finance costs.
The contractual service margin, or CSM, on in-force policies — a key indicator of future profitability — stood at 4.98 trillion won at the end of the third quarter, up 16.4%, or 701.7 billion won, from 4.27 trillion won at the end of last year. Cumulative new-contract CSM for the first three quarters reached 847.1 billion won, a 95.5% increase of 413.7 billion won from 433.4 billion won a year earlier. The company said the growth reflects a strategy focused on future profitability and that it is on track to meet its annual new-contract CSM target of 1 trillion won.
Total assets at the end of September stood at 49.5 trillion won, down 7.9%, or 4.25 trillion won, from 53.75 trillion won a year earlier. The solvency ratio under the Korean Insurance Capital Standard, measured after transitional measures, fell 27.62 percentage points from the end of the previous quarter to 368.78% (provisional), and was down 63.06 percentage points from 431.84% a year earlier.
NH Nonghyup Financial Group's cumulative net profit for the first three quarters reached 2.53 trillion won ($1.91 billion), up 11.9% from the same period last year. The insurance segment — comprising NH Nonghyup Life and NH Nonghyup Property & Casualty Insurance — accounted for 3.6% of that total, with the two units posting net profit of 6.8 billion won and 95 billion won, respectively.
"New-contract CSM this year has grown nearly twofold compared with last year, bringing us closer to our annual target of 1 trillion won," an NH Nonghyup Life official said. "We will continue to focus on expanding new-contract CSM through profitability-driven sales and strengthening our long-term earnings base."
won@heraldcorp.com
