• Home /
• BCM News and Events /
• BCM news /
• Samsung Life Insurance chooses BS 25999 and BSI for BCM excellence

Samsung Life Insurance chooses BS 25999 and BSI for BCM excellence

30 June 2008

Samsung Life Insurance, the leading life insurance company in Korea, demonstrates it’s also a leader in BCM with certification from BSI to BS 25999 for business continuity management.

Established in 1957, Samsung Life Insurance (SLI) is the leading life insurance company in Korea with GBP 11.7 billion in revenue and GBP 257.3 million in net income based on the 2006 financial year. Whilst its core business is insurance it additionally runs retail finance, investment funds and retirement pensions. Headquartered in Seoul, it has 1,100 branches throughout Korea with 10 global offices in major cities including London, Tokyo and Singapore.

As such a large company and managing a vast amount of wealth SLI needed to underpin business confidence by implementing a robust and globally accepted standard for business continuity management. In doing so it would position itself as the market leading insurance company by being the first to demonstrate adoption of best practice in BCM. Additionally it wanted 3rd party certification to independently verify its BCM system (BCMS) and processes.

Strategy for success

Employees defined and documented the gap between the best practice set out in BS 25999 and the organisation’s existing BCMS. The results of this internal gap analysis were then submitted to BSI for a report, which in turn led to the development of a Corrective Action Plan. SLI’s challenge was to minimise and correct the gaps in its own BCMS thereby improving it and making it robust, and ultimately allowing it to be assessed for independent certification to demonstrate to stakeholders that the company meets international best practice.

At the final audit stage, BSI’s assessment team found that SLI had implemented a robust organisational structure for BCM wherein the Risk Management Team was responsible for overall business continuity and each department had its own BCM manager in a sub role. Certification to BS 25999 was subsequently awarded.

BSI’s role

Mr Young-Jae Ahn, Manager of the Non-financial Risk Management Group of Samsung Life Insurance’s Enterprise Risk Management Team said: “BSI Korea’s auditors provided a detailed and rigorous assessment which identified areas within our business continuity management arrangements which we needed to change. We now fully understand that BCM will now be a crucial part of our daily business. SLI is proud to have received the first BS 25999 certification in our sector, confirming our position as a leading global financial company.”

Mr YS Choi, BSI Management Systems Korea’s BS 25999 product manager, added: “Both the CEO and all SLI’s staff have participated whole-heartedly in implementing a business continuity model which has been raised from basic to best practice. In particular, managers across the business have set a good example for their employees”.

The certification followed on from the hugely successful BSI Korea BCM Launch held in April at the Korean Chamber of Commerce & Industry (KCCI), located in the centre of Seoul.  Over 90 participants attended and the event included a presentation from Mr Ahn of Samsung Life Insurance on how his company had implemented BS 25999.