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Insurer earns hold in China

(Shanghai Daily)
Updated: 2007-01-24 14:07

Global top insurance brokerage Marsh & McLennan Companies Inc said yesterday it had been granted the first wholly owned license for foreign institutions to broker policies on China's mainland.

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The New York-based firm is planning to expand in the country to broker insurance for large-scale commercial risk, reinsurance and international marine, aviation and transport, it said in a statement.

"We have seen an increasing demand for more sophisticated risk and insurance solutions from local Chinese companies," Paul Wilkins,chief executive officerfor Marsh's Greater China Region, said in the statement.

China's insurance industry has been growing by more than 20 percent annually on average in the past decade as the government encouraged citizens to seek commercial insurance for protection.

But market watchers believe the sector still has room to grow as fewer than four percent of the country's 1.3 billion people have life-insurance coverage.

China's domestic market already hosts a raft of international insurance giants including American International Group and Manulife Financial Corp.

Marsh's insurance-brokering rivals such as Willis Group Holdings Ltd and Jardine Lloyd Thompson also have formed local joint ventures, in which they hold a 51 percent stake.

Marsh, which has been in China for 25 years as a risk-management consultant, said the new license underscores China's commitment to the World Trade Organization to open up the insurance sector.