New Name, New Business Lines

Korea Export Insurance Corp. to change name to Korea Trade Insurance Corp. to add import insurance to its offerings

The Korea Export Insurance Corp. will change its name to Korea Trade Insurance Corp. and add import insurance coverage to its business lines, mainly to cover imports of raw materials, President Yoo Chang-moo said during a meeting with reporters in Gwachon, near Seoul, on Sept. 7.
The CEO said export insurance has not been enough to cover all trade transactions made between Korean firms and overseas firms and, from next year, KEIC will begin to offer insurance on imports of such key import goods as machinery and raw materials including those related to installations to support the stable supply of those products and commodities, pending revisions of laws and regulations on export insurance.
Yoo said many Korean importers lose their advance payments for imports and there needs to be a means to prevent these instances. He said the company will increase its insurance volume on exports, while kicking off insurance on imports. It will also start insurance coverage for green industries, introduce insurance for service businesses on a test basis and strengthen insurance on cultural exports next year.
The company will reinsure part of the short-term export payments to guard against a rapid rise in export insurance accompanied by larger risks and for effective management of those risks.
Yoo also said the result of the export insurance emergency management plan this year was positive with export insurance supply rising 28 percent YoY to 123 trillion won, showing that it would be able to meet the target set at 170 trillion won without much trouble. He said he will continue to set the target this time at 200 trillion won, pending consultations with the financial authorities.
He predicted that exports next year will increase slowly and exports for this year would not be able to reach the $370 billion targeted for this year and Korea would rank ninth in the world in terms of exports, advancing from its current 10th place standing.
KEIC, in a ceremony on July 20 in the auditorium of its head office in downtown Seoul, announced the “CS Declaration,” designed to boost the customer satisfaction rate to more than 80 percent by 2012 with the theme of “Smile of customers, our hope.”
During the ceremony, the declaration was read aloud, followed by the presentation of citations to employees with excellent customer service records and a performance of a drama depicting the customer service upgrading efforts by employees.
With the declaration, KEIC plans to strengthen its customer service in the second half. The company will provide training to staff with its “Customer Satisfaction Center,” which opened in June, to improve customer consultations, along with the attitudes of staff toward customers and introduce the CS mileage system to measure its staff’s progress in customer service.
Yoo said he will see that proper compensation will go to those who have upgraded their customer service skills, calling on all employees to do their best to create a culture that upholds customer satisfaction as the utmost value.
In the meantime, KEIC signed a reinsurance agreement with the Export Finance and Insurance Corp. (EFIC) of Australia at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Bangkok on Aug. 7, the company announced recently.
President Yoo signed for KEIC, while President Angus Armour signed for the Australian export finance company. EFIC is 100 percent owned by the Australian government and is in charge of export insurance support of Australian exporters since its setup in 1957.
The reinsurance agreement will allow both signatories to provide export insurance support to any overseas export deals involving both Korean and Australian exporters commensurate with the exports made by either country’s exporters in the form of reinsurance.
Under the agreement, exporters from Korea and Australia would have many chances to join overseas export deals in the form of a consortium, KEIC officials said, because the world economic slump has private reinsurance firms facing a reduction of financial resources, which made a global risk sharing network among export insurance firms very important.
They said the agreement with EFIC is the second one that KEIC signed with a foreign reinsurance firm after Kuke of Poland, in line with KEIC’s strategy to sign more such reinsurance agreements with other international state export insurance firms for more effective risk management and continuous export support. nw

President Yoo Chang-moo of the Korea Export Insurance Corp.