As of March 15, five A-share listed insurance companies have fully released the original insurance premium data from January to February 2022.
Among the listed insurance companies with the group as the main body, Ping An Insurance (Group) Company Of China Ltd(601318) original insurance premium income was 183153 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 1.22% The People’S Insurance Company (Group) Of China Limited(601319) original insurance premium income was 159246 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 17.04% China Pacific Insurance (Group) Co.Ltd(601601) original insurance premium income was 104842 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 5.94%.
Among the listed insurance companies with life insurance as the main body, China Life Insurance Company Limited(601628) original insurance premium income was 241.2 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 5.03% New China Life Insurance Company Ltd(601336) original insurance premium income was 46.384 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 5.2%.
life insurance faces weak growth in the short term
From January to February 2022, China Life Insurance Company Limited(601628) original insurance premium income was 241.2 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 5.03%; The original insurance premium income of Ping An Life was 128788 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 1.61%; The original premium income of CPIC life insurance was 73.888 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 2.3% The original insurance premium increased by 0.6 billion yuan year-on-year; The original premium income of PICC Life Insurance was 53.384 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 26.45%.
Over the same period, the original premium income of PICC Property Insurance was 91.758 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 13.65%; The premium income from the original insurance of Ping An Property Insurance was 47.531 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 10.97%; The original premium income of CPIC property insurance was 30.954 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 15.7%.
With regard to the development trend of the life insurance industry, China Life Insurance Company Limited(601628) said that in 2022, despite the complex situation, the fundamentals of China’s long-term economic improvement have not changed. China’s life insurance industry is still in an important period of strategic opportunities, and the long-term development situation is still good. From January to February 2022, China Life Insurance Company Limited(601628) closely focused on the working idea of “stabilizing growth and position, controlling costs and risks, and focusing on improving the leading ability of Party building, value creation ability, collaborative development ability, digital operation ability and product service innovation ability”, continued to promote high-quality development, and the development of the company remained stable.
The report on China’s life insurance industry released by Aowei consulting pointed out that although the industry faces weak growth in the short term, when China’s per capita disposable income exceeds US $7 Tcl Technology Group Corporation(000100) 00, the annual growth rate of life insurance premium scale is expected to be as high as 13%, and surpass the United States to become the world’s largest life insurance market in 2030. By around 2040, China’s life insurance penetration rate is expected to reach a stable level of 11% – 13%, and the premium scale of 45 trillion yuan is expected to be realized in 2050.
Qian Xing, managing partner of Aowei consulting, said: “the expected increase of nearly 10 times means that there is still a huge guarantee gap for Chinese residents, especially for medical insurance, pension annuity, term life insurance and life insurance. These demands will become an important engine for the future growth of the scale of China’s life insurance market.”
“Insurance companies need to strengthen their confidence, resolutely implement measures beneficial to the long-term development of the industry, and constantly invest resources and efforts to release potential market value. The market needs to be patient with the transformation period when the industry meets short-term challenges and experiences growth pains. In short, we are full of confidence in the bright future of China’s life insurance market.” Qian Xing said.
For the current challenges faced by the life insurance industry, Yang Zheng, Party Secretary of Ping An Life Insurance, believes that the pressure on the growth of the life insurance industry is only a symptom, because the whole industry has not really integrated high-quality development with business operation. Therefore, we should control the fundamental requirements of high-quality development, liberate ourselves from the thinking pattern and path dependence that do not adapt to the high-quality development of the life insurance industry, and take the initiative to break the situation in terms of ideology, development concept and business model. “The adjustment of the life insurance industry is not only the adjustment of the growth rate of business scale, but also the profound adjustment of the development mode of the industry; it is not only the upgrading and adjustment of business measures, but also the profound adjustment of ideological understanding.”
Guotai Junan Securities Co.Ltd(601211) Liu Xinqi, chief analyst of non bank financial industry, believes that the insurance industry is still in a painful period in the process of transformation to high quality, and is still optimistic about the development prospect of the insurance industry to meet customers’ health management and pension needs for a long time, so as to maintain the “overweight” of the industry. Listed insurance companies try first in the process of industry transformation to high quality, actively layout the health management service and pension industry, and are most likely to take the lead in getting out of the bottleneck and leading the industry into the next round of rapid development. However, at present, the big health and pension industries are still in the layout. At the same time, the liability side is facing problems such as the decline of manpower scale but the improvement of per capita production capacity is less than expected, resulting in the fundamentals continuing to hover at the bottom. It is expected that the transformation time of listed insurance companies needs to be given. The reduction of short-term market risk appetite is conducive to the insurance sector with undervalued and high dividends; At the same time, under the expectation of “stable growth”, it is conducive to improve the pessimistic expectation of the market on the potential risk of insurance assets.
the insurance industry is further related to other industries
Throughout the year, digital transformation will become the key task of listed insurance companies.
For example, in February 2022, The People’S Insurance Company (Group) Of China Limited(601319) held a meeting of PICC science and technology cadres to announce the formal establishment of PICC science and technology company; Taibao technology announced its formal establishment, with 601 Jiangsu Hengli Hydraulic Co.Ltd(601100) % shareholding and a registered capital of 700 million yuan; Taiping technology released the capital increase information. It plans to increase the capital by 355 million yuan. Taiping property insurance will subscribe 135 million yuan, Zhejiang Financial Holding will subscribe 200 million yuan and Zhejiang Xingke technology development investment will subscribe 20 million yuan. After the capital increase, the registered capital of Taiping technology increased to 855 million yuan, and there was no new shareholder.
Moreover, since 2022, China’s financial regulatory authorities have successively issued a series of documents, such as the measures for the supervision of IT outsourcing risks of banking and insurance institutions, the financial technology development plan (20222025), the guidance on the digital transformation of banking and insurance industry, and the 14th five year plan for the development of financial standardization, It defines the objectives and tasks of insurance digital transformation, and provides a solid policy foundation for insurance innovation and development.
According to the 14th five year plan for the development of insurance science and Technology issued by China Insurance Industry Association, during the 14th Five Year Plan period, in terms of science and technology investment, the development plan proposes to promote the industry to achieve the goal of more than 1% of information technology investment and more than 5% of information technology personnel; In terms of service capability, it is proposed to promote the industry to achieve the goals of business online rate of more than 90%, online product proportion of more than 50%, online customer proportion of more than 60%, underwriting automation rate of more than 70%, underwriting automation rate of more than 80% and claims automation rate of more than 40%; In terms of innovative applications, it is proposed to promote the cumulative number of patent applications in the industry to exceed 20000.
Zhongan Financial Technology Research Institute released the report “new rain and dew in a hundred years of vegetation – trends of insurance innovative financing, 2021 review and 2022 outlook”, which shows that the insurance industry has and will continue to have development characteristics similar to the cyclical fluctuations of the Internet industry. With the support of 5g network technology with ultra-high rate, ultra-low time delay and ultra large connection, XR is expected to drive the development of new Internet formats integrating virtual and real, and the user behavior and market demand will show phased development characteristics, so as to promote the insurance industry to pay attention to and explore new digital development directions that meet regulatory requirements and market demand.
Under the wave of digital development, the form of insurance products and services will change greatly. New digital applications will be ushered in in the dimensions of sales model exploration, accurate risk prevention and ecological service innovation, so as to further improve the customer service experience.
In terms of sales mode, the sales concept and sales behavior of insurance agents are expected to usher in a new breakthrough in the next generation Internet environment with the integration of virtual and real. The insurance industry may be able to break the traditional pyramid structure of agents with clear levels from top to bottom and form a platform based digital organization. Therefore, the form of extensive development of agents will be changed, and the “customer-centered” insurance sales may be truly realized.
In terms of precise risk prevention, in the environment of virtual reality integration, the data of insurance service process can be effectively accumulated, so as to ensure the traceable identification of risk elements and accurately prevent possible risks. In addition, in the environment of virtual reality integration, customers can obtain a more direct and intuitive service experience, so that insurance companies can reduce the accident probability and compensation cost through effective risk prediction and intervention.
In terms of ecological service innovation, the relevance between the insurance industry and other industries is expected to be further enhanced. The ecology of health, pension, after car service and digital life in the insurance value chain can be seamlessly connected with insurance services through the integration of virtual and real, and can be immediately added to customers’ insurance consulting, scheme suggestions, accident claims and other needs.
Liu Yunhai, member of the Party committee and second level inspector of Guangdong banking and Insurance Regulatory Bureau, said that in the future, the banking and insurance industry should adhere to digital transformation as the focus of service innovation. “For the banking and insurance industry, the core of digital transformation is to take data as the key production factor, optimize the business and technical architecture, promote the deep integration of digital technology and financial business, realize the transformation of the business model of financial institutions, and provide customers and partners with more convenient and efficient financial services.”
