The combined net income of insurance companies in South Korea surged nearly 50 percent in the first nine months of the year from a year ago on advances by both life and non-life insurers, data showed Monday.

The combined net profit of 22 life insurance firms and 31 non-life insurance companies here came to 11.42 trillion won ($8.74 billion) in the January-September period, up 47.2 percent from the same period last year, according to preliminary data from the Financial Supervisory Service.

The net income of life insurance companies spiked 49.4 percent on-year to some 4.4 trillion won over the cited period, with the combined net profit of non-life insurers surging 45.8 percent to 7.02 trillion won.

The sharp increase in net income was largely attributed to a low base effect, caused by large increases in policy reserves during the January-September period last year, which had nearly offset 24.7 trillion won in investment income.

In the first nine months of this year, the insurance companies' premium income reached 162.3 trillion won, up 3.8 percent or 5.98 trillion won from a year earlier, according to the financial watchdog.

Their return on assets gained 0.54 percentage point to 1.32 percent over the cited period, while their return on equity slipped 0.39 percentage point to 9.06 percent.

The companies' total assets stood at 1,153.4 trillion won as of end-September, down 12 percent or 156.7 trillion won from 1,310 trillion won tallied at end-2022. (Yonhap)