Insurance Market Overview

Since the economic reform from 1980s, Chinese insurance industry is one of the industries that enjoy the highest growth rates in China.

In 2010, Chinese insurance business grew steadily, which indicated as follows:

The premium income of the whole industry reached RMB 1,452.7 billion, which was 33% higher than 2009;
The premium income of property insurance reached RMB 389.5 billion, which was 35% higher than 2009;
The premium income of personal insurance reached RMB 1,063.2 billion, which was 31% higher than 2009;
Total assets of country's insurance companies reached RMB 5 trillion, which was 18% higher than 2009.

By the end of 2010, a total of 2,550 professional insurance intermediaries played in Chinese insurance market. Among those intermediaries, 1,853 were agencies, 392 were brokers and 305 were loss-adjusters, which took a percentage of 72.67%, 15.37% and 11.96% respectively.

In 2010, premium income of insurance brokers increased 27.96% (from 2009) to RMB 31.31 billion, which took 2.13% of total national premium. The detailed components are as follows:
The premium income of property insurance is RMB 26.16 billion, which took 86.20% of insurance brokerage companies' total income;
The premium income of personal insurance is RMB 4.3 billion, which took 11.50%of insurance brokerage companies' total income;
The premium income of reinsurance business is RMB 847 million, which took 2.7% of insurance brokerage companies' total income;

As the coming of the tenth year of China's WTO accession, China's insurance market will fully open to foreign-investment, which means there will be a further fierce competition in the market. With more involvement of foreign insurance companies and the increase insurance awareness of Chinese consumers, more progress will take place in terms of insurance regulations and customer services. The further contribution of insurance brokerage companies will accelerate China's insurance industry's future prosperity.

Source: China Insurance Regulatory Commission www.circ.gov.cn