Kyobo Life Group Expands Push Into Digital Assets Across Insurance, Brokerage Ahead of Regulation

Kyobo Life Group is expanding its digital-asset business across its financial affiliates, including insurance and securities, as it moves to test business models spanning on-chain finance. The group plans to validate applications ranging from premium payments and insurance claim payouts to the issuance and distribution of real-world assets, or RWAs, and token securities.

Park Jin-ho, a vice president at Kyobo Life Insurance, outlined the plan at the "Bridging Finance Onchain" event held on October 1 at the Four Seasons Hotel in Seoul's Jongno district. "Kyobo Group sees the shift to on-chain finance not as a simple technology trend, but as a mid- to long-term business task," he said. "The important question now is not whether to participate in on-chain finance, but which financial functions should be moved on-chain, when and how."

Kyobo Life is first preparing to introduce on-chain finance in two areas: asset management and insurance. On the asset side, the company is reviewing ways to use new digital assets such as tokenized Treasuries, funds and RWAs in its investment portfolio. On the customer side, it is testing ways to link premium collection and insurance payouts to on-chain infrastructure.

Kyobo Life has already conducted 10 proof-of-concept projects with domestic and overseas partners. Those projects include purchases of overseas stocks and bonds using dollar stablecoins, the tokenization of real assets such as real estate and wine, and on-chain premium payments and death-benefit payouts.

Park said insurance is not a payments business, meaning accident verification, reviews of payout conditions and customer-protection procedures are essential. Rather than moving all operations at once, the company plans to connect testable functions in stages. Kyobo "chose validation over observation," he added, saying the group would begin with proof-of-concept work, move on to pilots in actual operating environments and develop those efforts into business models if commercial viability is confirmed.

Kyobo Securities is focused on building an "asset layer" to create digital assets for distribution to investors. Shin Hee-jin, a director at Kyobo Securities, described a securities firm's role across four areas: underwriting, brokerage, distribution and trust. Securities firms must source and structure assets, turn them into securities and connect them with investors, while also handling liquidity, price discovery, disclosure, suitability checks and investor protection, he said.

Kyobo Securities has also been conducting pilot projects involving a range of digital assets since 2024. The company has tested the securitization of new asset classes such as premium wine and concert intellectual property, while also reviewing ways to tokenize traditional financial assets including money market funds, or MMFs, and unlisted shares. In particular, it is examining how tokenized MMFs could be used as on-chain cash-equivalent assets, including as collateral for repurchase agreements, or repos, and as margin.

Shin said one lesson from preparing those cases was that the company could not simply wait for regulation. It needs to be ready to respond immediately across all of those products once rules are put in place and the market opens, he said.

Kyobo Life Group said it ultimately aims to connect its insurance and securities businesses to on-chain infrastructure and develop that into an operating financial business. "Finance in the future will not evolve by choosing between traditional finance and on-chain finance," Park said. "The key is not which replaces which, but how to connect the strengths of both."