South Korean insurers face mounting regulatory and capital pressures as authorities expand household-debt management to policy loans secured by insurance surrender values, restrict domestic subsidiary investments and prepare to enforce a 50% core-capital threshold under the Korean Insurance Capital Standard (K-ICS) next year. Lotte Non-Life Insurance cut policy-loan limits for savings-type and annuity policies from 95% to 85% of accumulated surrender value on the 1st, matching Samsung Life Insurance and Hyundai Marine & Fire Insurance. Policy-loan balances reached 72.8 trillion won at the end of June, insurer loan-receivable delinquency rose to 1.08%, and insurance-sector household loans increased by 2 trillion won in the first half after declining by 1.9 trillion won last year. Six insurers were below the 50% K-ICS core-capital threshold at the end of June: Hana Life, KDB Life, iM Life, Hana Insurance, Heungkuk Fire & Marine Insurance and Lotte Insurance. Hana Life’s ratio fell to 14.26%, KDB Life’s to 33.17% and Hana Insurance’s to 22.43%, while Lotte Insurance remained negative at minus 5.4%. Surrender value reserves at five major life and five non-life insurers reached 44.0066 trillion won, up 8.9665 trillion won, or 25.6%, in the first half, reducing retained earnings and dividend capacity. The 3% domestic subsidiary investment cap also weakened local insurers’ acquisition bids, including for Lotte Non-Life Insurance, where Hillhouse Capital offered 1.1 trillion won. Regulators are reviewing reserve reforms, sales practices, internal controls and a possible shift from pre-approval asset-management controls to post-hoc oversight.