By the last trading day of 2021, the insurance sector (Shenwan secondary industry classification) index had dropped 39% compared with the beginning of the year. From the decline list, the insurance sector ranked second, second only to the education sector.
For the insurance industry, 2021 is really not easy. More than one million insurance marketers leave, the stock prices of listed insurance companies fall endlessly, the premium of serious illness insurance, the pillar product of the life insurance industry, has experienced a steep fall and the market continues to be cold. The property insurance industry has experienced the first full year after the comprehensive reform of automobile insurance, and the annual premium is expected to decline year-on-year… However, the difficult side shows courage, Although there are many twists and turns in 2021, the prospect of great development of China’s insurance industry will not change whether in terms of China’s per capita GDP or in terms of the depth and density of China’s insurance industry. After the cold winter comes the warm spring. To practice hard and forge ahead is the most important thing for the insurance industry to seek better development.
loss + emptiness
more than one million marketers left
In 2021, the human sea tactics of the life insurance industry for many years suddenly failed, and the marketers fell off sharply, which not only had a significant negative impact on the development of the industry, but also brought many reflections.
According to public data, by the end of the second quarter of 2021, the total number of marketers of listed insurance enterprises had decreased by 820000 compared with the end of 2020 and 1106000 compared with the end of 2019. In the third quarter, the loss continued. By the end of September, Ping An Insurance (Group) Company Of China Ltd(601318) and China Life Insurance Company Limited(601628) had 706000 and 98000 marketers respectively, down 19.5% and 14.8% respectively compared with the end of the second quarter. The rapid loss of marketers suppressed the growth of high-value business of insurance companies. Last year, the value of long-term delivery business and new business of many life insurance companies increased negatively, and the value of new business of individual insurance companies decreased by more than 30% year-on-year.
The reasons behind the loss of insurance marketers are complex. For example, the covid-19 epidemic has increased the difficulty of insurance sales; The income of marketers has stagnated for many years; Some insurance companies take the initiative to clear up the deficiency, reduce the quantity and improve the quality. Reflect on the loss of more than one million marketers, Zhou Jin, management consulting partner of PWC China’s financial industry, believes that: “This shows that the traditional life insurance marketing model has reached the stage of in-depth reform. With the gradual decline of the demographic dividend and consumers’ more and more professional understanding of insurance, the bottleneck of the traditional agent model has become more and more obvious. The covid-19 epidemic has promoted the online and digital reform process of insurance enterprises, accelerated the problems of the traditional agent model, and suffered in terms of staff increase and production capacity Encountered a great challenge. ”
Obviously, the crowd tactics that have lasted for many years have been unsustainable. At present, all insurance companies are trying to promote the reform of marketers, and the effectiveness remains to be tested in practice.
the serious illness insurance market fell sharply
According to the regulations of the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, from February 1, 2021, insurance companies can only sell adult major disease insurance products developed based on the specification for the use of disease definition of major disease insurance (revised in 2020) (the industry calls it the newly defined serious disease insurance).
Before the implementation of the new regulations, the marketing trend of various channels was fierce, consumers accelerated “getting on the bus”, and the sales of serious illness insurance in the old definition increased sharply. According to people familiar with the matter, in January 2021, the new standard premium of some insurance companies increased by 40% year-on-year, and some companies even increased by 70%, but excessive marketing also overdrawn the market. After the implementation of the new regulations, the customer reserve of serious illness insurance basically started from scratch. In addition, it also took time for the market to accept the products with new definitions. Since then, the premium of serious illness insurance has been lower all the way, and the annual premium income has been higher and lower.
According to the data, by the end of 2020, the premium of serious illness insurance accounted for about 60% of the total premium of life insurance. Zhu Junsheng, research director of China Insurance and Pension Research Center, Wudaokou School of finance, Tsinghua University, told reporters that serious illness insurance has been a pillar product of life insurance companies in the past decade, with high insurance threshold and average premium. At present, the number of effective serious illness insurance policies in China has exceeded 220 million, with high penetration rate and limited space for further expansion, so the growth rate is blocked. At the same time, after the definition of “serious illness” was switched, the serious illness insurance market continued to be depressed. In addition, the rapid development of millions of medical insurance, Huimin insurance and other medical insurance types also have a significant impact on the serious illness insurance market.
People in the industry generally believe that under the influence of multiple factors such as the mixed functions of serious illness insurance, the continuous innovation of life insurance products and the adjustment of regulatory policies, the proportion of serious illness insurance in health insurance premiums will continue to decline.
Huimin insurance is popular in many cities
In 2021, “urban customized commercial medical insurance” Huimin insurance was popular in many cities, and Huimin insurance in some cities even became phenomenal products. The coverage and insured population of Huimin insurance continued to grow.
According to the person in charge of the Policy Research Bureau of the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, as of October last year, the number of people insured for Huimin insurance had exceeded 70 million, and 58 insurance institutions had participated in more than 100 Huimin insurance projects in 27 provinces. On January 1, 2022, “Beijing Pratt & Whitney health insurance” officially came into effect. According to the project team, it has attracted more than 3 million Beijing citizens to participate in the insurance.
For the reasons why huiminbao became popular, industry insiders believe that: first, it has obtained the endorsement and support of relevant departments of local government, which has improved the public trust; Second, Huimin insurance has filled the gap of market demand, especially for the middle-aged and elderly, sick or non-standard groups; Third, it is cost-effective. The annual premium of Huimin insurance in many places is less than 100 yuan, but the insurance amount is as high as 1 million yuan, which is also the core reason why it is favored by consumers.
What is the actual operation of Huimin insurance? According to the person in charge of the cbcirc, the insurance coverage rates of projects in various regions vary greatly, and some reach more than 50%. At the same time, there are many kinds of Huimin insurance products in some regions, and there are some vicious competition phenomena. Although some products are publicized in the name of Huimin insurance, they do not well reflect the characteristics of “urban customization”, which is a hot spot. From the perspective of loss ratio, there are also obvious differentiation among various projects. How to “benefit the people” and how to strike a balance between high loss ratio and sustainability are important factors affecting its long-term development.
the pattern of Internet life insurance has changed
On October 22, 2021, the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission issued the notice on further regulating the personal insurance business of insurance institutions on the Internet. Life insurance companies operating Internet insurance must meet various conditions, especially the “high-level requirements” in solvency and other aspects for operating long-term Internet insurance products. According to the reporter’s statistics, after the release of the notice, at least 18 insurance companies announced that they would suspend the Internet life insurance business from January 1 this year.
In recent years, internet life insurance has developed rapidly. In 2020, the scale premium has reached 211.08 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 13.6%, much higher than the growth rate of 7.5% of the overall life insurance premium. The new regulations issued this time will raise the threshold for insurance companies to participate in Internet business. For example, at present, only 21 insurance companies in the industry meet the “high-level requirements” and can operate ordinary life insurance (except term life insurance) with an insurance period of more than 10 years and ordinary annuity insurance products with an insurance period of more than 10 years. At the same time, under the new regulations, the range of products that can operate on the Internet is reduced: universal insurance, dividend insurance and investment linked insurance cannot be sold online.
Industry insiders believe that affected by the new regulations, the pattern of Internet life insurance will be reshaped, and small and medium-sized insurance enterprises will face greater challenges. Part of the insurance demand will flow back offline, which is conducive to insurance enterprises with more branches and perfect marketing team. Meanwhile, due to the reduction of business entities and related products at the same time, it is expected that the scale of Internet life insurance market will decline significantly in 2022.
new energy vehicle insurance opens the “exclusive” era
On December 27, 2021, the exclusive new energy vehicle insurance products were officially launched nationwide, the Shanghai Insurance Exchange officially launched the new energy vehicle insurance trading platform, and the first batch of exclusive new energy vehicle insurance products of 12 property insurance companies including PICC Property Insurance, Ping An Property Insurance and CPIC property insurance were listed.
The launch of new energy auto insurance is a milestone in the auto insurance industry. At present, the annual premium of China’s auto insurance market is about 800 billion yuan. According to relevant calculations, the annual premium of new energy auto insurance in the whole industry will be increased to about 200 billion yuan by 2035. It can be seen that new energy exclusive auto insurance will be the most important source of incremental business in the auto insurance market.
For consumers, compared with traditional auto insurance products, the protection of new energy exclusive auto insurance is more comprehensive, which not only provides protection for the “three electricity” system, but also comprehensively covers the use scenarios of driving, parking, charging and operation of new energy vehicles. From the perspective of premium expenditure, the premiums of most car owners have decreased. For insurance companies, new energy’s exclusive auto insurance business is both an opportunity and a challenge. For example, Li Xiaozhen, chief actuary of China Re property insurance, told reporters that at present, the comprehensive compensation rate and comprehensive cost rate of new energy vehicle insurance are at a high level, and the compensation pressure of new energy vehicle insurance is great. When the new energy exclusive vehicle insurance was launched, the regulatory authorities required that its additional fee rate should not be higher than 15%, which means that the fee rate of the product will decrease in the future; At the same time, the benchmark premium of new energy models below 250000 yuan can only be reduced but not increased, and the loss ratio of most new energy models may rise.
Although the trend is clear and the prospect is promising, at present, the attitude of insurance enterprises towards new energy exclusive vehicle insurance is divided, large insurance enterprises actively embrace, while small and medium-sized insurance enterprises try carefully or wait-and-see.
the insurance sector index fell 39% in one year
As of the closing on December 31, 2021, the insurance sector index (Shenwan secondary industry classification) fell as much as 39% last year, ranking the second in the decline list of various industries, second only to the education sector.
The decline in share prices stems from the pessimism of investors on the liability side and investment side of insurance companies. From the liability side, in the first 11 months of last year, the premium income of original insurance of industrial life insurance was 3106.9 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 0.55%; Over the same period, the premium income of original insurance of industrial property insurance was 1057.5 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 3.3%. Among them, the auto insurance premium was 695.1 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 7.07%. On the investment side, insurance companies will also face considerable pressure in 2021. Insurance companies usually adopt the strategy of “giving priority to fixed income and supplemented by equity” in asset allocation. Since 2021, China’s interest rate has been hovering at a low level. At the same time, the increased volatility of the equity market has put great pressure on the investment side of insurance companies.
For the plight of the life insurance industry, Zhou Jin, a management consulting partner of PWC China’s financial industry, said that in 2021, life insurance companies encountered common challenges from internal and external factors, which was a concentrated exposure to the accumulated problems of the extensive development model of the industry over the years. This situation is difficult to reverse in the short term. It is expected that the life insurance market will still face great pressure this year. Shenwan Hongyuan Group Co.Ltd(000166) Ge Yuxiang, a securities analyst, believes that the plight of the life insurance industry in this round of re opening can be found that the traditional inefficient insurance marketing model has failed. In the first half of 2022, the marketing team has a trend of further shrinking, with a high base in the same period, and the life insurance industry is facing certain growth pressure.
In terms of property insurance, most analysts believe that the inhibitory effect of the comprehensive reform of auto insurance on auto insurance premiums has been significantly weakened. On September 19, 2021, the first anniversary of the implementation of comprehensive auto insurance reform, since October, the single month premium income of auto insurance has opened an upward channel. From the perspective of business quality, with the risk of credit guarantee insurance basically cleared, the performance improvement expectation of the underwriting end of property insurance companies is relatively strong.
network mutual aid moves from noisy to lonely
On December 28, 2021, mutual treasure announced that the platform would stop running at 24:00 on January 28, 2022. A stone stirs thousands of waves. At the peak of the mutual treasure platform, there were more than 100 million members, and there were still about 75 million when it was announced to be closed.
Although network mutual aid and insurance are not the same thing, the insurance industry pays great attention to network mutual aid because its guarantee content and operation mode are quite similar to insurance, and some mutual aid and insurance businesses are deeply integrated. When most network mutual aid platforms are shut down, corresponding insurance is provided for selection.
In fact, if mutual treasure is included, at least 10 network mutual assistance platforms will be shut down in 2021, of which 7 platforms have been in operation for less than 3 years. At the same time, it has been 10 years since it was first launched, and the supervision of network mutual assistance platform is still blank. Zhou Jin believes that it is still not clear whether online mutual assistance is charity or business. On the one hand, many platforms launch online mutual assistance not for purely charitable purposes, and the reason for attracting capital participation also lies in its potential commercial value; On the other hand, due to the definition of current laws and regulations, although network mutual assistance has strong security characteristics, it is separated from the financial supervision system, which leads to doubts about the standardized operation and sustainability of the mutual assistance platform.
Although the network mutual aid participated by the network giants have exited one after another, according to the reporter’s incomplete statistics, there are at least five platforms still running, such as Kangai commune and e mutual aid. Under the background of the “flash retreat” of the giants, where will these platforms go?
(Securities Daily)
