Top Biz News

Insurers call for simplified procedures

By Hu Yuanyuan (China Daily)
Updated: 2006-11-16 09:00

"The real situation is that it is very hard for foreign insurers to set up lots of branches at the same time due to lack of personnel," Ming added. "And they mostly choose to enter developed areas such as eastern China's Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Shandong provinces rather than remote regions."

The soaring number of foreign insurance institutions in recent years is the best proof of China's efforts to open the market, said Li Kemu, vice-chairman of the CIRC.

By December 15 of this year, 47 foreign insurers from 15 countries and regions will have set up 121 business institutions in China, among which 11 US insurers have established 34 business institutions. Among China's 42 life insurance companies, 24 are foreign-funded or joint ventures.

Although the overall market share of foreign life insurers hovers around 8.9 per cent, they have the lion's share of the Beijing market at 51.86 per cent. The figure in Shanghai and Guangzhou is 19 per cent and 12 per cent.

Foreign non-life insurers saw a growth of 24.5 per cent in premium last year, 10 per cent quicker than that of the domestic firms.

The US delegation also asked the CIRC to quicken the approval process on foreign non-life insurers' applications to transform their branches to subsidiaries.

A branch cannot do business in other provinces, but a subsidiary has the legal status to apply for business in other regions.

"Being a subsidiary could help to boost our geographic expansion," said George Huang, china chief representative of US-based non-life insurer Chubb Group.