South Korea’s insurance sector has taken a step toward eliminating one of its most routine administrative bottlenecks: the manual submission of family relationship certificates. Industry bodies say the change, delivered through an expansion of the country’s public MyData infrastructure, could affect approximately three million transactions annually – but only if the broader market follows the initial five carriers named for rollout.
The General Insurance Association of Korea (GIAK), the Korea Life Insurance Association (KLIA), and the Korea Credit Information Services (KCIS) announced on July 21 that family relationship certificates will be added to the 35 document types already accessible through public MyData, which includes resident registration certificates and academic transcripts, according to The Asia Business Daily. Insurers will retrieve documents directly from the platform rather than requiring policyholders to source and submit them manually, across contracting, underwriting, and claims assessment.
The announcement is the operational delivery of a legal permission established in June 2021. Revisions to the Enforcement Decree of the Insurance Business Act, approved at a cabinet meeting that month, explicitly permitted insurers to access administrative information – including family relationship certificates – upon policyholder consent, according to the Financial Services Commission (FSC). The July 21 expansion removes the manual submission step by routing retrieval through public MyData.
That five-year gap between legislative permission and automated implementation is relevant context. Under the Credit Information Use and Protection Act – the statute that also governs financial MyData – all financial companies are legally required to transmit credit information at an individual’s or MyData operator’s request. The statutory obligation to participate in data-sharing infrastructure predates the current announcement. Operational integration, however, has proceeded at different speeds across financial sectors since financial MyData launched in January 2022.
A GIAK representative said full industry participation “is expected to streamline the administrative burden for approximately three million cases per year involving the submission of family relationship certificates in the insurance industry.” Five named carriers – KB Insurance, Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance, Samsung Life Insurance, NH NongHyup Life Insurance, and DB Insurance – are identified for the initial sequential rollout. No binding industry-wide adoption deadline has been publicly announced by the FSC or GIAK, making the three-million figure a ceiling contingent on market-wide uptake rather than a near-term operational baseline.
Cheoljoo Kim, chairman of the KLIA, described the change as a structural integration of administrative and financial data systems. “This regulatory improvement is significant in that it expands the scope of public MyData usage across all insurance services. Now, family relationship certificates can be utilized throughout the entire process of insurance contracting, underwriting, and assessment, which will further strengthen the connection between administrative information and financial services,” Kim said, as reported by The Asia Business Daily.
Byungrae Lee, chairman of the GIAK, cited the frequency of family relationship verification requirements in general insurance. “Since general insurance is designed to protect people against a variety of everyday risks, it often requires verification of family relationships. Through this service expansion, we expect significant improvements in consumer benefits and convenience when purchasing insurance and filing claims,” Lee said. Yusam Choi, president of KCIS, attributed the development to coordination with the Ministry of the Interior and Safety. “Public MyData is a policy for everyone, reducing the burden of document submission for the public and increasing work efficiency for financial institutions based on accurate data,” Choi said.
Financial MyData had accumulated more than 117.8 million cumulative subscribers across 69 providers by February 2024, according to the FSC, which described the service as having become “a crucial part of everyday life for consumers.” The FSC’s April 2024 MyData 2.0 plan included expanding data flows between the public sector and financial MyData systems – the regulatory mechanism that enabled the July 21 insurance announcement. The FSC’s December 2025 financial policy directions listed introducing an AI agent for financial MyData services among its 2026 priorities, indicating the infrastructure is being extended toward AI-driven applications beyond document retrieval.
The commercial stakes of data accuracy in insurance have sharpened concurrently. The FSC convened an AI-based insurance fraud prevention task force in June 2026 and set a September 2026 deadline for completing a platform development plan. Insurers paid out 1.16 trillion won on fraudulent claims in 2025 – the highest figure on record – connecting real-time policyholder verification directly to financial exposure, not only administrative convenience.
South Korea’s broader data portability framework continues to expand under a parallel legislative track. Following amendments to the Personal Information Protection Act that took effect in March 2025, the Personal Information Protection Commission has been rolling out portability rights across 10 priority sectors, according to the Library of Congress’s Global Legal Monitor. The insurance-specific certificate expansion builds on amendments to the Insurance Business Act while relying on the financial MyData framework established under the Credit Information Use and Protection Act. It is overseen by the FSC, alongside the broader expansion of data portability across other sectors.
The key variable for insurance professionals is adoption pace. The gap between five carriers and full-market integration will narrow faster if the FSC formalizes participation expectations – something it has not yet done publicly. Until it does, the three-million-case projection remains aspirational.
