South Korea's non-life insurers suffered a near 28 percent tumble in third-quarter earnings due to a rise in their loss ratio, data showed Tuesday.

The combined net profit of nine non-life insurance firms came to 502.1 billion won (US$431 million) in the July-September period, down 27.8 percent from a year ago, according to the data compiled by the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS).

The plunge was attributed mainly to a surge in their loss ratio, or the ratio of insurance claims to premiums, for auto insurance and indemnity health insurance, or reimbursement-backed private medical insurance.

The top three industry players all saw their third-quarter bottom lines shrink at double-digit rates from a year earlier.

Market leader Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance Co. posted a 32.6 percent plunge in net profit to 159.8 billion won, followed by No. 2 player DB Insurance Co. with 19.2 percent and third-largest Hyundai Marine & Fire Insurance Co. with 28.3 percent.

Meritz Fire & Marine Insurance Co. was the sole non-life insurer that saw an improvement in third-quarter earnings. Its net profit rose 5 percent on-year to 76.6 billion won thanks to more earnings from investment activity.

Nonghyup Property & Casualty Insurance Co. saw its net loss narrow sharply to 1.8 billion won for the third quarter from a 17.7 billion-won loss a year earlier.

In the first three quarters of this year, the combined net income of the non-life insurers also sank 29.5 percent on-year to 1.69 trillion won. (Yonhap)

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