Nearly 80,000 Financial Complaints Handled in First Half; 89% of Disputes Involve Insurance

Surge in Complaints Over Insurance Payouts

FSS: "Temporary Increase... Stabilization in the Second Half"

The Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) has revealed that the number of financial complaints handled in the first half of this year has approached 80,000 cases. The number of dispute-related complaints rose by 19% compared to the first half of last year, with insurance accounting for 89% of the total.

Financial Supervisory Service Headquarters, Yeouido, Seoul. Financial Supervisory Service

According to the “2026 First Half Financial Complaints Receipt and Processing Trends” report released by the FSS on September 29, the total number of financial complaints processed—including both general and dispute complaints—reached 78,462 cases during the first half of this year. This represents a 32% increase compared to the 59,463 cases processed in the first half of last year. During the same period, the number of dispute complaints processed rose by 19% (an increase of 4,118 cases) to reach 25,747 cases.

By sector, insurance made up the largest share of dispute complaints processed at 89%—with 73% from non-life insurance and 16% from life insurance. This was followed by financial investment at 6%, banks at 3%, and small- and medium-sized financial providers at 2.5%.

The number of insurance dispute complaints processed during the first half totaled 22,890 cases, a 35.9% increase from the 16,839 cases recorded in the first half of last year. An FSS official explained, “The rise was due to the increasing number of complaints related to insurance claim payments, prompting a proactive response from the FSS.”

The number of bank-related dispute complaints processed fell to 694 cases—a 72.1% decrease compared to 2,484 cases in the first half of last year. This drop is attributed to a base effect, as a large number of disputes related to the Hong Kong H Index (Hang Seng China Enterprises Index, HSCEI) equity-linked securities (ELS) misselling were handled during last year's first half.

The total number of financial complaints received in the first half of this year was 78,979 cases—a 39.5% increase (22,346 cases) over the 56,633 cases from the first half of last year. Of these, general complaints amounted to 51,979 cases, up 38.3% (14,398 cases), while dispute complaints reached 27,000 cases, up 41.7% (7,948 cases) from a year earlier.

An FSS official stated, “Due to strengthened consumer protection supervision, consumer awareness has improved, resulting in a temporary surge in complaints during the first half of the year. However, stabilization was observed as the numbers returned to previous levels in the second half (July–August).”

By sector, insurance accounted for the largest share of financial complaint receipts, with 39,963 cases, followed by small and medium-sized financial providers with 16,223 cases, banks with 13,245 cases, and financial investment with 9,548 cases. Insurance represented the highest sectoral share at 51% (38% non-life, 13% life), followed by small and medium-sized financial providers at 20%, banks at 17%, and financial investment at 12%.

Life insurance companies received 9,827 financial complaints, a 47% increase year-on-year, while non-life insurance companies received 30,136 complaints, a 40.5% increase. For life insurers, complaints related to benefit calculation and payment surged by 77.2%, and those regarding policy solicitation increased by 18.8% from a year earlier. For non-life insurers, complaints centered on benefit calculation and payment (up 29.9%) and coverage determination (up 78.9%) were the main drivers of the increase.

Banks saw a 30.5% year-on-year increase in complaint receipts, totaling 13,245 cases. Complaints related to voice phishing (up 77.8%) and deposits/savings accounts (up 59.3%) saw significant increases. Complaints from small and medium-sized financial consumers rose by 22.8% to 16,223 cases. By sub-sector, credit card companies accounted for 42.4%, credit information companies for 11.5%, and private lenders for 10.9%.

Financial investment complaint receipts totaled 9,548 cases, an 86.1% increase over the same period last year. As complaints regarding stock transactions and exchange-traded fund (ETF) trading, as well as requests for investigations into unfair trading, increased, securities companies received 6,559 complaints—up 99.6% from the first half of last year. Asset management company complaint receipts relating to exaggerated advertising (such as for the SpaceX IPO inclusion) also surged 377.1% to 1,169 cases over the same period. Meanwhile, complaints against virtual asset operators increased by 82.5%, totaling 679 cases.

An FSS official said, “We will actively reflect consumer damages and inconveniences received through complaints and disputes in our supervisory and inspection work. For issues that can be settled directly by financial companies, we will guide the establishment of complaint and dispute-handling processes throughout the financial sector to ensure prompt and fair resolution.” The official added, “We also plan to build an AI-based automated portal in order to reduce complaint review times and enhance complaint handling quality by utilizing generative artificial intelligence (AI).”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.