As of November 15, the CIRC has approved the opening of 13 insurance companies this year.

        Recently, the CIRC's official website disclosed that Guangdong Yuedian Property Insurance Captive Co., Ltd. ("Yuedian Captive") was approved to open. This is the first captive insurance company in Guangdong Province and the fourth nationwide. The other three captive companies are CNPC Captive Insurance, China Railway Captive and COSCO Shipping Captive.

        Yuedian Captive was jointly funded and established by Yuedian Group and Guangdong Electric Power, with registered capital of RMB 300 million. It is registered in the Nansha Free Trade Zone of Guangzhou, with Wen Shufei as the proposed chairman. Its business scope covers the relevant insurance business of Guangdong Yuedian Group and its affiliated units, including property loss insurance, liability insurance, credit insurance and guarantee insurance, short-term health insurance and accident injury insurance.

        A review of the CIRC's official disclosure documents by Jiemian News found that the CIRC has approved 13 insurance companies to open this year. Compared with the 8 insurers that opened in all of last year, the pace of insurer openings this year has clearly quickened.

Registered capital unit: RMB 100 million

        The insurers approved to open this year include 4 life insurance companies, 1 health insurance company, 2 captive companies, 1 pension insurance company, 1 asset management company, 3 mutual insurance companies and 1 reinsurance company. The opening of these insurers fully reflects the regulator's intention to enrich market participants.

        Life insurance companies have always been the most closely watched insurance licenses. The four companies that opened this year are registered in Qianhai (Shenzhen), Beijing, Guizhou and Jinan respectively. Among them, Guizhou-registered Huagui Life is Guizhou's first local insurance legal entity.

        Fosun United Health in the table above has also attracted considerable attention. On the one hand, the opening of this company means the further improvement of Fosun Group's insurance segment; on the other hand, specialized health insurance companies have been losing money for years, so the future of Fosun United Health is uncertain.

        The PICC group's business scope has expanded rapidly this year. PICC Pension, registered in Xiong'an, is the eighth pension insurance company in China, and the approval of the pension license also means the PICC group has broader room for development in pension insurance. In addition, the PICC group also had a reinsurance company open this year.

        In addition, the opening of three mutual insurance companies has added new insurance entities to the industry. Xinmei Mutual Insurance pioneered the "claims review panel" system in the industry for disputed claim cases; Huiyou Mutual Insurance focuses on housing construction and engineering fields; and Zhonghui Mutual Insurance targets the rural insurance market, exploring the coverage of home property insurance, accident insurance and supplementary medical insurance in rural areas.

Source: Visual China Group 2017-11-15