A study of the currency management for foreign investments of Korean insurance companies

The Korean insurance industry has rapidly grown over the past decade, and at the same time the asset size of Korean insurance companies increases very fast. So the effective and scientific asset management becomes very essential for these companies to stay profitable. Korean insurance companies are also expanding their business platforms abroad including emerging countries, and consequently the appropriate currency management becomes a very important issue in asset management. In this paper, various hedging instruments for managing currency risk were reviewed with the focus on Korean specific financial market conditions, and the researches on the optimum hedge ratio of foreign investments were also discussed. Based on the practice of leading companies and the academic approach of the currency management, I suggested the effective currency management strategy for foreign investments of Korean insurance companies.