Japan issues business improvement order to four non-life insurers (updated)

SOMPO Holdings

26/12/2023 03:52

(Adds comments from insurers in paragraph 4)
       TOKYO, Dec 26 (Reuters) - Japan ordered four major
non-life insurance companies to improve business practices in
connection with anti-competitive activity that aimed to keep
premiums high, Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki said on Tuesday.
    The order was issued to Aioi Nissay Dowa Insurance, Sompo
Japan Insurance, Tokio Marine & Nichido and Mitsui Sumitomo
Insurance, Suzuki said.
    The four had been asked to report to the regulator on
whether they engaged in prior consultations with each other when
preparing contracts for clients, domestic media have reported.
    Statements from the four insurers said they take the
government order seriously and will work to restore trust.
    "With this order, we urged them to make it clear where
management responsibility lies and to thoroughly revamp
management controls," Suzuki told reporters.
    He said the four insurers engaged widely in activities that
were incompatible with the spirit of Japan's antitrust law.
    "We will demand that each of these companies takes this
matter seriously and seek thorough responses to prevent a
recurrence."

 (Reporting by Tetsushi Kajimoto; Additional reporting by
Satoshi Sugiyama; Editing by Christian Schmollinger and Edmund
Klamann)
 ((tetsushi.kajimoto@thomsonreuters.com; +81-3-6441-1829;))