Ten Keywords of Insurance Industry in 2007

In 2007, China's insurance industry was driven by the inherent development needs and the national economy's rapid growth environment, along the trajectory of good and fast and bigger and stronger, with all indicators hitting a new high since 2004. The annual income from insurance business is expected to exceed 700 billion yuan, with a growth rate of more than 24%. Among them, the growth of non-life insurance industry exceeds that of life insurance industry, and the business income will reach 250 billion yuan, with a growth rate of nearly 30%. Meanwhile, the total assets of the insurance industry and the profit of the insurance industry have risen sharply, and the number of insurance employees, the number of insurance organizations and the number of insurance products have been comprehensively refreshed, in order to fully complete China's insurance industry ahead of schedule? The 11th Five-Year Plan has laid a solid foundation for the early and full completion of China's insurance industry. development plan has solidified a solid foundation.

Rural Insurance

In 2007, the insurance industry thoroughly implemented the "Opinions of the State Council on the Reform and Development of the Insurance Industry" and the spirit of the Central Government's Document No. 1, and actively promoted the introduction of policies and measures by all levels of government for the development of agricultural insurance and agriculture-related insurance, in the context of the construction of a harmonious society and the coordinated development of the economy and society. The government has also made substantial strides in subsidizing the policies of the central and local governments in agricultural insurance.

This year, the central government arranged 1 billion yuan of funding in Jilin, Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, Jiangsu, Sichuan, Hunan, six provinces and districts to implement the policy of agricultural insurance premium subsidy pilot, is included in the subsidy object of corn, rice, soybeans, cotton, wheat five crops and breeding sows.

In addition to the central financial pilot subsidies in addition to the six provinces, there are non-central financial agricultural insurance premium subsidies pilot 24 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions to carry out for pigs, breeding sows, poultry, draft animals and local major agricultural crops of agricultural insurance premium subsidies for the arrangement, so that the annual amount of central and local financial subsidies for agricultural insurance premiums amounted to 2 billion yuan. It is expected that this year the national agricultural insurance premium income is expected to exceed 5 billion yuan, an increase of 846 million yuan last year, 6 times, agricultural insurance business income and agricultural insurance coverage area and the scope of protection and other major indicators will be a comprehensive rewrite of the history of China's agricultural insurance development.

In addition to vigorously developing the agricultural insurance business for the planting and breeding industries, the insurance regulatory authorities and the relevant insurance companies are also actively exploring and making useful attempts in other areas related to the economic and social development of rural areas. The China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC) has launched a policy-based rural housing insurance system on a pilot basis in Fujian and Zhejiang. Under the organizational guidance of governments at all levels, the vast number of rural households have actively participated in the insurance system, with premiums being borne by provincial and municipal (county) finances and individual farmers***. This insurance system not only improves the ability of farmers to rebuild after a disaster, but also has an important significance in improving the government's disaster relief system.

China Export and Credit Insurance Corporation (CECIC) has been actively providing export credit insurance and related services for agricultural export enterprises, and has provided credit insurance coverage for nearly 3,000 agricultural export enterprises in 28 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions, with an insurance amount of nearly US$10 billion, which has further strengthened the ability of agricultural enterprises to explore the international market.

At the level of rural medical and pension insurance, the insurance industry has been actively involved in the pilot program of new rural cooperative medical care and pension insurance for expropriated land farmers. In the first half of the year alone, the insurance industry participated in 121 counties and cities in the new rural cooperative medical care pilot, with the number of participants reaching 27.6 million people, mobilizing 1.67 billion yuan of cooperative medical care funds, and providing compensation amounting to 750 million yuan. In 15 provinces and cities, pension insurance business for expropriated land farmers has been carried out, accumulating more than 3 billion yuan in pension funds, and expropriated land farmers have been provided with stable old-age and livelihood protection. At the same time, the insurance industry also adapted to the characteristics of the rural market, launched a small simple life insurance products.

This year, insurance regulatory authorities at all levels and relevant insurance companies have taken full advantage of the opportunity to implement the "State Council's Opinions on the Reform and Development of the Insurance Industry", and actively cooperate with the governments at all levels in the rural economic development policy, so that the central and local governments at all levels can gradually pay attention to the status and role of the insurance industry in the process of economic and social development, and provide policy preferences and scientific guidance on the development of the insurance industry. The central and local governments have gradually emphasized the position and role of insurance industry in the process of economic and social development, and provided policy inclination and scientific guidance for the development of insurance industry. Therefore, the political and social value of the rapid growth of rural insurance is an important gain for China's insurance industry in 2007.

Standardization

The China Insurance Standardization Technical Committee (CISTC) has completed the Guidelines for Insurance Standardization, Insurance Terminology (New and Adjusted), Insurance Basic Data Meta-directory, Insurance Industry Code Code, Insurance Business Code, Reinsurance Data Exchange Specification, and Reinsurance Data Exchange Specification. Specification for Reinsurance Data Exchange" and "Specification for Property and Casualty Insurance Data Exchange for Banking Insurance Business". Among the seven standards, the Guidelines for Insurance Standardization Work not only stipulates the objectives, principles, methods, organization and operation procedures of the standardization work in the insurance industry, but also puts forward the basic requirements on the procedures for the compilation of insurance standards and the principles and methods for the compilation of insurance standards, which are the standards for the formulation of standards. The Insurance Basic Data Meta-Catalog, the Insurance Business Code Set and the Insurance Industry Institutional Code Coding Specification, as important components of the basic type of standards in the framework of China's insurance industry standard system, are the basic standards for the construction of informatization projects, and are the important cornerstones for the formulation of other standards such as the industry regulatory standards, statistical standards, and intra- and inter-industry information exchange standards. As the first standard that specifies the principles of data exchange between reinsurance companies and direct insurance companies, the Reinsurance Data Exchange Specification will serve the purpose of unifying the business messaging standards in the field of reinsurance business as well as the technical messaging standards across fields. The Specification for Property Insurance Data Exchange for Banking Insurance Business, which mainly specifies the data exchange standards based on property insurance for banking insurance business, will be applicable to both banking and insurance fields as the Specification for Life Insurance Data Exchange for Banking Insurance Business promulgated last year,*** together with the construction of a complete standard framework for data exchange specifications for banking insurance business. The insurance standardization strategy is the basis of the insurance informatization strategy and business development strategy, and the level of standardization directly reflects the level of development of the insurance industry, which is the fundamental guarantee for strengthening and improving financial supervision, and preventing and resolving financial systemic risks.

At the same time, the insurance industry has also made important breakthroughs in the standardization of major disease insurance and motor vehicle insurance, which are related to the immediate interests of the general public.

In 2007, China's insurance industry completed the "Critical Illness Insurance Disease Definition and Use of Norms" and a new version of the basic terms and conditions of the motor vehicle commercial insurance industry. The use of the definition of major illness insurance disease norms" unified the major illness insurance terms, clear if to? The Code on the Use of Disease Definition of Major Disease Insurance The name of the insurance product for adults, the scope of coverage must include 25 diseases in the highest incidence of six diseases.

The official launch of the new version of the basic terms and conditions of the motor vehicle commercial insurance industry allows relevant insurance companies to choose to use the terms and conditions of the motor vehicle insurance industry or develop their own motor vehicle insurance terms and conditions, as well as to develop complementary motor vehicle insurance products and other specialty motor vehicle insurance products on the basis of the terms and conditions of the motor vehicle insurance industry. Critical illness insurance and motor vehicle insurance are both insurance products with high market demand, and the standardization of these two types of products will have a positive impact on safeguarding consumers' interests, standardizing operations, simplifying processes, facilitating insurance coverage, optimizing claims handling, as well as enhancing the level of insurance companies' business operation and management, from which both consumers and insurance companies will benefit, and the majority of policyholders and insured will undoubtedly become the biggest beneficiaries. Therefore, the standardization construction will not only help the public to understand insurance, know insurance, believe in insurance, and expand the business share of the insurance market, but also promote the standardization of insurance supervision and insurance operation, which is an important basic work for China's insurance industry to achieve scientific and sustainable development.

Compliance Management

On the basis of the initial formation of a modern insurance regulatory system with three pillars, namely solvency, corporate governance structure and market behavior regulation, CIRC has continued to improve the insurance regulatory system, especially focusing on improving the enforcement and binding force of the three pillars.

Firstly, CIRC formed the China Insurance Solvency Supervisory Standards Committee, issued four rules for the preparation of insurance company solvency reports, including "Subsidiaries, Joint Ventures and Associated Enterprises", "Dynamic Solvency Test (Life Insurance Companies)", "Contents and Format of Annual Reports" and "Quarterly Reports", and revised the former "Rules for the Preparation of Insurance Company Solvency Reports No. 2: Money Funds and The former Solvency Reporting Rules for Insurance Companies No. 2: Money Funds and Structured Deposits was amended and renamed as Solvency Reporting Rules for Insurance Companies No. 2: Invested Assets. It further improves the scientificity of solvency assessment and the efficiency of solvency supervision of Chinese insurance companies in terms of organization and system, which is of far-reaching significance for the establishment of insurance supervision system with solvency supervision as the core, the improvement of internal risk management mechanism of insurance companies, and the promotion of good and fast development of insurance market.

Secondly, CIRC issued four normative and guiding documents to improve the corporate governance structure during the year, namely, Interim Measures for the Administration of Independent Directors of Insurance Companies, Interim Measures for the Administration of Connected Transactions of Insurance Companies, Guidelines for Internal Audit of Insurance Companies (for Trial Implementation), and Guidelines for Risk Management of Insurance Companies (for Trial Implementation), to further refine the Guidance Opinions on the Regulation of the Governance Structure of Insurance Companies, which was issued in 2006. It further refined the relevant provisions of the "Guidelines on Regulating the Governance Structure of Insurance Companies" issued in 2006, enhanced the operability and guidance, and further improved the institutional system of the governance structure of insurance companies in China. Two regulations, the Guidelines on Compliance Management of Insurance Companies and the Measures for the Administration of Chief Actuaries of Insurance Companies, were adopted.

Finally, CIRC made a thorough deployment for regulating the insurance market in 2007, focusing on the problems of difficult insurance claims, misleading sales, irrational price competition and unrealistic data, increasing the investigation and handling of companies with insufficient solvency, regions with poor market order and businesses with outstanding violations, further improving the system and measures to regulate the behavior of the insurance market, promoting the construction of industry integrity, and improving the industry service standards. industry integrity construction, and improve industry service standards. In order to standardize law enforcement, CIRC has completed the preparation of the "Insurance Supervision Administrative Penalty Guidance Manual", which makes clear provisions for the typical problems reflected in the implementation of administrative penalties.

In the third quarter of this year, the CIRC **** dispatched 738 inspection teams **** 2782 person-times to conduct on-site inspections of 774 insurance company branches and insurance intermediaries. They imposed 187 administrative penalties on 186 insurance company branches and insurance intermediaries, an increase of 130.86% year-on-year; ordered the removal of 33 executives, an increase of 153.85% year-on-year; imposed a fine of 7,356,500 yuan, an increase of 140.31% year-on-year; ordered to stop accepting new business for 12 items; revoked the license for 1 item; and warned 40 institutions and 88 people.

Insurance stocks

In 2007, the three giants of China's insurance industry were listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange.

China Life, listed on January 9 this year, the issue price of 18.88 yuan, freezing funds of 830 billion yuan, the opening price of 37 yuan, closing price of 58.42 yuan on December 25; March 1 this year, Ping An of China was listed on the issue price of 33.80 yuan, freezing funds of 1.1 trillion yuan, opening price of 50 yuan, closing price of 107.72 yuan on December 25; this year, China Taiyuan, listed on December 25, was listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange. December 25 listing of China TIPO issue price of 30 yuan, frozen funds 2.8 trillion yuan, listing opening price of 51 yuan, December 25 closing price of 48.17 yuan.

Through the three insurance companies listed data, it can be found that the size of the frozen subscription funds is getting bigger and bigger, in addition to the TICC has just been listed, the remaining two current share price has greatly exceeded the listed opening price. The relevant insurance stock issuance of frozen funds data show that social investors for insurance stocks investment enthusiasm wave after wave. At the same time, both the issue price and listed six months after the share price performance, are better than the same period of listing of bank stocks, China Life and Ping An have become an important indicator of China's stock market, but also the major funds and institutional investors of the long position.

The investment boom in insurance stocks shows that on the one hand, social investors are generally optimistic about China's insurance industry, and on the other hand, China's insurance industry has begun to prepare for the public's judgment. Listed insurance companies actually operate and develop under the supervision of the public, including policyholders, and industry regulators, who monitor the development quality of the insurance companies, and the industry regulators, who monitor the operating rules of the insurance companies. How listed insurance companies can make their stockholders become their clients in the process of researching, analyzing and supervising the company through transparent and open quality and rule-abiding operation is a topic that must be seriously considered by insurance companies that have been listed or are preparing to be listed. The current insurance market is still characterized by impatience, focusing on premium scale, light on insurance technology, heavy investment and finance, light on insurance protection, heavy on manpower and sea tactics, light on quality of talents, heavy on sales and promotion, light on risk control, heavy on claims procedures, light on after-sales service, and heavy on investment income, light on underwriting profit. Therefore, the development of the quality of the industry and the rules of operation are faced with many problems that need to be solved and adjusted, those who have not yet solved the problem of quality and rules of the insurance company, it is important not to be listed for the sake of listing, has not yet taken off the crotch trousers? Those insurance companies that have not yet solved the problems of quality and rules should not go public just for the sake of going public, not yet taking off their crotch pants. Hurriedly packaged to become a public company, once the outer packaging slipped, the damage is the image of the entire industry.

Compulsory insurance

This year, the public attention of the insurance business is the highest compulsory insurance for motor vehicle traffic accidents (hereinafter referred to as?). The first time I've seen this, I've seen it in the media, and I've seen it in the media.) The first is that the insurance company has become the most frequent insurance term in the media this year. Since the implementation of the compulsory insurance system in July 2006, there have been a lot of discussions and controversies in the community about compulsory insurance, and in May 2007 after a stage of high tide.

Since China has 150 million motor vehicles of various types, and the public **** road is the most common and basic transportation channel, the compulsory traffic insurance directly involves the overall interests of the public. Traffic insurance has caused a high degree of public concern is a normal phenomenon, the design of the compulsory insurance system is designed to regulate the order of road traffic, the protection of the legitimate rights and interests of victims of road traffic accidents, it should be said that the construction of a harmonious society has a very positive significance of the system. However, due to? Compulsory insurance? In our country is a new system, there are implementation rules are not perfect, supporting measures are not in place, the relevant measurement data is insufficient and lack of experience in operation and management and other problems. These problems need to be solved through the relevant legislature, government agencies, the insurance industry and social interest groups *** with the same attention and synergy.

China's insurance regulatory authorities and the insurance industry, in the spirit of social responsibility and responsibility to the people, in the face of the controversy over compulsory insurance, seriously listen to the views and suggestions of all parties, proactively disclose the operational data related to compulsory insurance, and through the form of hearings to openly solicit the views of all sectors of the community to improve the system of compulsory insurance and compulsory insurance rates, fully respect and protect the right to information, participation, and expression of the people. The right to information, participation, expression and supervision of the people are fully respected and guaranteed, so as to make the decision-making mechanism of compulsory traffic insurance more scientific, transparent and democratic, and to benefit the people in the improvement and development of the compulsory traffic insurance system. It is the positive and proactive attitude adopted by the insurance regulatory authorities and the insurance industry as a whole in dealing with the disputes over compulsory traffic insurance that has enabled the public to know more about insurance and pay more attention to insurance in the course of the disputes and discussions over compulsory traffic insurance. Therefore, the form of hearing on compulsory traffic insurance has actually become an effective way to publicize and popularize insurance knowledge, so that the society and the public can pay more attention to insurance and supervise insurance, thus promoting the healthy development of China's insurance industry and playing the role of insurance for the construction of a harmonious society and the well-being of the people. Of course, from another aspect, the controversy about compulsory insurance makes us in the future to study and analyze more soberly and rationally the many problems that may be faced by the relevant systems and rules about insurance in the process of construction, to fully understand the insurance culture and the concept of insurance that are maturing due to the people's concern about insurance, to further improve our work, to perfect the construction of various insurance systems related to people's livelihood, and to learn to make the best use of the situation to leverage on the The company will also learn to make the best use of the situation to help the society to pay attention to the enthusiasm of insurance, publicize and popularize the scientific insurance culture and insurance concepts, so as to lay a solid market foundation for China's insurance industry to be better and faster and bigger and stronger.

Investment-linked insurance

This year, the wealth effect of the capital market is also passed to the insurance industry, many companies to adjust the product structure, investment-linked insurance and participating homeowners' property insurance to some life insurance companies and property insurance companies to refresh the record of the insurance business income, and insurance products connected to the wealth management function has been further tapped. At the same time, the adjustment of the product structure has also brought about changes in the market structure, Ping An and China Life's high stock premiums are attracting many policyholders hoping to invest in wealth management insurance products to achieve the value of monetary wealth.

The six consecutive interest rate hikes by the Central Bank have made participating and universal products less attractive, and the continuous improvement of the capital market since last year has brought rare development opportunities for investment-linked insurance, which has been fading from the market for many years. Many favorable factors have prompted the investment-linked insurance to grow rapidly into an important force of the insurance market with the wealth effect in the context of savings moving, and a number of life insurance companies are competing to launch new generation investment-linked products, and some non-life insurance companies have also launched investment-linked products. The new generation of investment-linked products has been launched by a number of life insurance companies, and some non-life insurance companies have also launched quasi-fund products.

The new generation of investment-linked products is characterized by the use of multi-accounts, allowing customers to make choices based on risk preferences, the insurer chooses better-performing funds for the investment of funds, and the sales channels are mainly taken to bank counters or online banks, which are relatively more trusted by the public. It is expected that the business income of investment-linked products for the whole year is close to 40 billion yuan, an increase of about 550% over last year, accounting for all the current year's life insurance business income of 8%.

The insurance industry in this year's investment-linked business in a more scientific market positioning. Among them, foreign life insurance companies in the form of boutique marriage of foreign banks, customer positioning in the middle and high-income groups, a large proportion of sales of high average piece premium investment-linked insurance products, investment-linked insurance market this year's biggest winners.

As most Chinese life insurance companies adopt the business model of supermarkets or department stores for all types of income groups, they are relatively cautious in the investment-linked insurance business, only cautiously promoting the investment-linked insurance business in some first-tier cities in economically developed regions, and defending the market share of participating insurance through the distribution of special dividends in the form of counterweights to fund products and investment-linked insurance.

As a matter of fact, investment-linked insurance is a life insurance product for the high-income group, which can fully meet the dual needs of investment finance and insurance protection of a specific group based on meeting a certain proportion of insurance protection conditions as required by the regulatory authorities, and the Chinese insurance companies can target their customer groups by taking a cue from the boutiques in the department store market.

Therefore, through this year's strong sales of investment-linked insurance, there are two issues worthy of serious consideration: first, how to differentiate the operation of large national companies; second, how to abide by the personality of insurance products in the process of investment and financial products in the process of hot sales.

Foreign insurance

This year, half of the foreign insurance companies in order to expand the market to increase the registered capital, and even some of the foreign companies in the year two capital injections, nearly 30 foreign companies were in the country at the same time in nearly 60 large and medium-sized cities set up institutions, covering 18 of the 32 provincial administrative regions of the Chinese mainland, north to Heilongjiang, south to Guangxi, central China, and the United States, the United States, the United States, the United States, the United States, the United States, the United States, the United States, the United States, the United States and other countries. Heilongjiang in the north, Guangxi in the south, and Henan, Hebei, Anhui and Hubei in the center of the country, where foreign-funded insurance companies' products can be purchased. Meanwhile, 17 insurance organizations from the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, South Africa, Bermuda and China's Hong Kong and Taiwan have set up representative offices in China.

At present, foreign-funded property insurance companies dominate the product liability insurance market in Shanghai, Shenzhen and Guangzhou, as well as the high-tech insurance market such as international cargo transportation; foreign-funded life insurance companies have locked up a significant portion of the high-income group through their cooperation with internationally renowned commercial banks and strict customer orientation. The market share of foreign-funded life insurance companies is expected to exceed 8% this year, and the overall insurance business income of foreign-funded insurance companies is expected to reach 40 billion yuan.

With relatively advanced management techniques, service models, and elite sales teams, complemented by strategic marketing and public relations activities, foreign investors have begun to lead the Chinese public in comparing Chinese and foreign insurance companies. This year, foreign-funded insurance companies and their representative organizations have co-organized the China Higher Insurance Education Forum, released the China Life Insurance Index, sponsored activities such as the National College Mock Insurance Court and the Beijing-Tianjin Insurance Forum, and continued to award more than one million yuan in scholarships to college and university insurance students. Many foreign companies also reach out to and influence existing and potential customers through various forms of salons, cultural and sports activities.

In the process of competing with local insurance companies, most foreign companies try to avoid head-on competition by differentiating their operations and attracting high-end customers through unique product sales strategies, after-sales service strategies, and social PR strategies. It is very important for domestic companies that entered the market at the same time as the foreign companies to learn and understand the true meaning of competition from the development of foreign companies.

However, there is also a serious imbalance in the development of the group of foreign-funded insurance companies and ? polarization? In the group of 23 Chinese-foreign joint venture life insurance companies, with an average annual insurance business income of nearly 1 billion yuan, most of the Chinese-foreign joint venture insurance companies whose foreign shareholders come from Europe and the United States have better development, while the development status of Chinese-foreign joint venture insurance companies whose foreign shareholders come from Asian countries or regions is not ideal, with three of them having an annual income from insurance business of less than 60 million yuan. The less successful JV insurers share the same characteristic of low localization of middle and senior management staff, which has resulted in them remaining at the bottom of the market after many years of operation.

Pension and Health

At present, China has 51 life insurance companies to carry out the pension insurance business, of which there are five professional pension insurance company has opened, the accumulation of pension insurance fund of more than 200 billion yuan, the formation of a variety of subjects *** with the operation of the pension insurance situation. The insurance industry has developed more than a hundred kinds of pension insurance products, business types include individual pension annuities, group pension annuities and corporate annuities.

In order to strengthen the management of pension insurance business, CIRC has issued the first departmental regulation in China's insurance industry specifically regulating the pension insurance business, Measures for the Administration of Pension Insurance Business of Insurance Companies, which is of great significance in promoting the professional development of pension insurance, promoting product innovation, regulating market behaviors, protecting the rights and interests of the insured and beneficiaries, and improving the external environment. Similarly, the CIRC has given full support to the development of professional health insurance, and PICC Health Insurance Company's business is growing fast, with insurance business income nearly three times that of last year, accounting for 99% of China's professional health insurance market.

It is expected that this year's national commercial health insurance premium income is the same as last year, if you add the commercial insurance through the entrusted management mode, and actively participate in the new rural cooperative, urban residents' basic medical insurance, medical assistance, urban workers' supplemental medical insurance and other areas of the handling of the service, the size of the fund in the 6 billion yuan, the two business together about 14% growth over the previous year.

However, both pension and health insurance in China are in the early stages of development, with problems such as small overall scale, low degree of specialization, and an external operating environment that needs to be improved. As a matter of fact, there is a huge potential market demand for pension and health insurance business in China, and how to turn this demand into real market demand requires in-depth study by the insurance regulatory authorities and professional organizations of pension and health insurance in China.

At present, the business income of China's professional pension insurance and professional health insurance organizations accounts for less than 1% of the total business income of the national life insurance market, which is a marginal business in the market, and some professional pension and professional health insurance companies are facing difficulties in survival. Take health insurance as an example, the overall market, if we exclude the scale of business through the entrusted management mode of business, this year's national health insurance business income will drop at least one percentage point compared to last year, professional pension insurance companies and professional health insurance companies are facing the embarrassing situation of the loud thunder, but the rain is small.

As the development of commercial pension and health insurance will effectively promote people's livelihood for the insurance industry rely on, in order to achieve a breakthrough in the commercial pension and health insurance market, the relevant professional organizations in addition to efforts should be marketing the government, from the perspective of serving people's livelihood for the government to provide and design policies, while the insurance regulatory authorities and the relevant insurance groups should ? help the horse and give it a ride? , calling on society and the government to fully recognize the importance of professional pension insurance business and professional health insurance business for people's livelihood, and create policy and market space for the benign development of professional pension insurance companies and professional health insurance companies.

Total Assets

The active capital market has not only led to robust sales of investment and wealth management insurance products, but also to the best period in the history of insurance capital utilization. The investment channels of insurance funds have been steadily broadened, and the system construction has been continuously strengthened.

Benefiting from the continued rise in asset prices and the broadening of investment channels, the balance of insurance funds utilized from January to October this year amounted to 2.6 trillion yuan, with a rate of return of 10.87%, which is the best level in recent years. In the stock market, the proportion of insurance funds directly entering the market was raised from 5% to 10% at the beginning of this year. In terms of overseas investment, insurance institutions can purchase foreign exchange to invest in the global capital market, and the scope of investment varieties has been liberalized to financial derivatives, and as of the end of November, 20 insurance companies have obtained QDII qualification. In addition, small and medium-sized insurance companies through the third-party wealth management to achieve direct access to the market.

In the face of small and medium-sized insurance companies wishing to expand the investment channels of insurance funds, the CIRC has launched the relevant provisions of the pilot third-party commissioning business for asset management companies. As China's insurance industry is a sunrise industry, the rapid development of insurance companies has increased the demand for capital, and the shareholders of the relevant insurance companies have continued to increase their strategic injections into the invested insurance companies. 22 Chinese and foreign insurance companies and one reinsurance company have increased their capital during the year, and more than 40 insurance intermediaries have also joined in the process of increasing their capital. Together with the 14 Chinese and foreign insurance companies authorized to be established, there are nearly 100 billion yuan of capital to enrich the total assets of the insurance industry, the willingness of social capital to enter the insurance market is very obvious.

At the same time, the insurance industry has withstood the relatively concentrated life insurance policy maturity payment and fund hot sales this year, the insurance business income rose steadily. It is because of the increase in the scale of insurance business income, insurance capital utilization of better returns and the insurance industry's continued increase in capital, this year only 10 months to make the total assets of the insurance industry on the basis of the previous year's net increase of 1 trillion yuan, and make the end of 2007, the total assets of the insurance industry successfully exceeded 300 billion yuan.

The scale of insurance business contributes significantly to total assets. In the overall insurance market, the number of life and insurance companies with insurance business revenue of more than 10 billion yuan has not changed, and remains at 5 as last year, and there is no fundamental change in the pattern of the market where the strongest are always the strongest, with China Life, Ping An of China, China Pacific, and PICC controlling 70% of the market.

Due to the lack of awareness of differentiation, second- and third-tier domestic insurance companies still take imitation as their basic development idea, and the traces of wobbly following the big companies are very obvious in product development, customer orientation, sales channels, and service models. As a result, in an environment where social capital and strategic capital are generally bullish on China's insurance market, investors are starting to mature, policyholders are starting to mature, and the maturity of the insurance companies themselves is lagging behind.

Taking the property insurance market as an example, the low-tech motor vehicle insurance dominates the market, the business with certain technical content generally shrinks, whether it is international cargo transportation insurance or large commercial insurance business, the income of the higher technical content of the insurance business declines year by year in the vicious competition environment at low rate levels, the difficulty of reinsurance in the international market increases, and the foreign capital quietly takes over the high technical content of the insurance business that the Chinese capital regarded as chicken ribs. The foreign investors have quietly taken over the high-tech insurance business that Chinese investors regarded as their chicken ribs. Therefore, the rapid increase in total assets of the insurance industry, the insurance industry must be vigilant about the phenomenon of declining professional and technical standards, and any strategic capital with a long-term vision of development is more concerned about the strength of the insurance industry in the formation of a certain technological platform for sustainable development.

Insurance Intermediaries

In the insurance sales market in 2007, traditional individual marketing and part-time agents still controlled close to 80% of the insurance product sales channels. However, emerging sales channels represented by telemarketing, internet sales and insurance intermediary chain franchise sales are beginning to show great vitality.

The telephone and network sales model is a convenient and low-cost sales method, which greatly reduces the intermediary costs of insurance product sales to the policyholder, and if it can realize high-quality after-sales service and claims protection, it will be able to attract and stabilize high-quality customers who are mainly in the middle-income group.

The typical representative of insurance intermediary chain sales is the national chain franchise model of insurance integrated sales and service system established by Pan-China Insurance Services Group and Huakang Financial, which is characterized by being independent of any insurance company, through the unique ? Backup Platform + Individual Entrepreneurship? model for insurance intermediary business, which can help customers procure financial products from any contracted financial institution that is allowed to sell.

As the individual marketing system is generally criticized by the society, the cost of part-time agency is high, and the trend of financial consolidation seems to be on the verge of coming out, international capitals are hopeful about the innovation of China's insurance intermediary service channel.

In 2007, Pan-China Insurance Services Group, the first insurance intermediary in Asia to list on NASDAQ under the ticker symbol CISG, raised US$188.16 million at an offering price of US$16; Sandy Weil, former chairman and CEO of Citigroup, took a stake in Beijing Mingya Insurance Co. Ltd. and renamed it Zurich Insurance Brokerage (Beijing) Co., Ltd.; China Zhonghe, the largest insurance agency chain in China, has received US$18 million from Sequoia Capital. After obtaining US$18 million from Sequoia Capital, China Zhonghe, the largest insurance agency sales chain in China, said that it may launch a second round of financing in the near future; IDG Venture Capital Fund of the United States injected US$25 million into Huakang Financial; and Aetna Group of the United States wholly owned the acquisition of Hong Kong Jiajian Huanyu, which is a curved curve to enter the mainland insurance intermediary market.

This series of transformative moves in the insurance intermediary market is just the beginning of what will not only challenge the individual agent system and the part-time agency model, but will also challenge insurers in terms of their products, services, and claims handling.