PICC Property & Casualty says auto insurance in China may boost profits

According to PICC Property & Casualty, the decision made by China to permit foreign insurance companies to sell mandatory auto insurance might help the local insurers to make base rate government changes for those policies. The board secretary in Beijing for this largest non-life insurance in the country, Zhang Xiaoli, said that the result of bringing in compulsory vehicle coverage with third-party liability will be “quite limited” for the countries based in the country. He explained that insurance companies from other countries probably won’t “launch any big offensive” because they…

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China insurance industry to face major challenges this year, according to Regulatory Commission

China may be home to one of the fastest growing insurance markets on the planet, but Xiang Junbo, chairman of the Chinese Insurance Regulatory Commission, says that the industry is faced with major challenges this year. Last year, Chinese insurers saw return on investment results drop by 3.6%. When coupled with the now notorious natural disasters of 2011, the results have rocked the nation’s insurance industry somewhat. Regulators say that if the coming challenges cannot be overcome, the growth of the insurance market may grow beyond the industry’s ability to…

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China insurance market growing too fast for domestic insurers to handle

China’s insurance market is experience major growing pains, according to a report from Standard & Poor’s, a credit rating agency based in the U.S. The Chinese market is, by all accounts, enormous and the potential for success in second to none. The full breadth of this potential success, however, is open only to Chinese insurers. Native insurers are now facing demand for coverage that they are having trouble meeting. Many companies, including New China Life, one of the largest life insurers in the country, are plagued with capital shortfalls due…

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China is likely to allow foreign companies into its mandatory auto insurance marketplace

The Insurance Association of China’s chairman has announced that the country will likely be opening its doors to the largest auto market in the world to make it possible for foreign companies to enter into the mandatory auto insurance marketplace in 2012. Currently, this auto insurance market of $31.5 billion is entirely led by insurance companies from China, for example, Ping An Insurance and PICC Property and Casualty Co., but regulators are working to bring in a greater amount of competition. Jin Jianqiang, in Taipei, explained that insurers from other…

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Changes to insurance laws opens industry to greater freedoms

An amendment to the Insurance Act has been passed by the Legislative Yuan in Taiwan, which now makes non-investment foreign currency life insurance policies exempt from an existing quota for foreign investments imposed on insurers. Under the regulations that were in place, insurers had not previously been permitted to place more than 45 percent of their investments of their total funds into assets that are foreign-denominated. Insurance companies are now permitted by the Financial Supervisory Committee (FSC) to sell non-investment foreign currency life insurance policies without subjecting those policies’ funds…

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