The appeal is dismissed.

The grounds of appeal are examined.

1. The Insurance Business Act imposes criminal punishment on a person who runs an insurance business without a license on a person who satisfies physical and human requirements prescribed in the Act and obtains a license from the Financial Services Commission for each type of insurance, taking into account the effects which may affect the State and the social and economic life due to the collectiveity, sociality, etc.

In light of the provisions and purport of the Act on Regulation of Insurance Business, whether an insurance business falls under the category of insurance business subject to license should be determined by considering its substance and economic character practically without resorting to the name of the business or to the legal form of composition.

(See Supreme Court Decisions 89Do2537, Jun. 26, 1990; 2001Do205, Dec. 24, 2001). Article 4(1) of the former Insurance Business Act (amended by Act No. 10394, Jul. 23, 2010; hereinafter the same) provides that a person who intends to run an insurance business shall obtain a license from the Financial Services Commission for each type of insurance, including a guarantee insurance for one category of non-life insurance, and Article 200 subparag. 1 through 4(1) provides that a person who violates any provision of Article 4(1) shall be punished.

In addition, according to Article 2 of the former Insurance Business Act, the term "insurance business" refers to the life insurance business, the non-life insurance business and the Type 3 insurance business as the business of receiving money in return for promising to provide agreed benefits for life or death of a person and compensating for losses caused by an accident (Article 2 of the former Insurance Business Act), and the term "non-life insurance business" refers to the life insurance business, the non-life insurance business and the Type 3 insurance business (Article 1). The term "non-life insurance business" refers to the compensation for losses caused by an accident in return for promising to compensate for losses caused by the occurrence of an accident and receiving money from the debtor