China Insurance Industry Report, 2009

The revenue of China’s insurance industry achieved 13.8% year-on-year growth to RMB1.11 trillion in 2009, exceeding RMB1 trillion for the first time. Property insurance business continued to remain leapfrog growth, with premium income 23.1% growth year-on-year to RMB 287.58 billion. As for personal insurance business, the premium income was RMB826.15 billion, with year-on-year growth of 10.9%. As a whole, the year-round payment of China’s insurance industry reached RMB 312.55 billion in 2009.

As of the end of 2009, there were eight insurance companies whose solvency didn’t measure up, a decrease of five in number. Nevertheless, key indicators of the eight companies showed positive improvement from the early 2009. The surrender rate of personal insurance companies was 3.54% and remained a moderate momentum. Overall, the cash flow of the insurance companies remains fairly strong.

The structural adjustment in the insurance industry has made productive achievement. Taking property insurance as an example, non-auto insurance business such as agricultural insurance, credit insurance, engineering insurance showed a year-on-year growth of 21%, 91.3% and 31.6% respectively; the investment surplus of nonlife insurance products was RMB50.64 billion, a drop of RMB 42.65 billion over the end of 2008.

The total profit of insurance companies hit RMB53.06 billion. As for the property insurance companies, they achieved profits of RMB3.51 billion in total, turning from loss to profit. Besides, the life insurance companies achieved profits of RMB43.46 billion, bringing a remarkable business value boost. The entire industry realized investment income of RMB214.17 billion, with the rate of return at 6.41% or an increase of 4.5 percentage points over the previous year. There were a total of 22 insurance companies of which the capital return rate exceeded 8%.

By the end of 2009, the total assets of insurance companies surpassed RMB 4 trillion and reached RMB4.1 trillion. And the net asset was RMB390.46 billion, an increase of RMB109.74 billion from the end of 2008. The balance of insurance fund utilization was RMB3.7 trillion. Reform in insurance industry was pushing forward steadily. In particular, China Pacific Insurance issued H stocks in Hong Kong; the CBRC issued the pilot administrative measures for commercial banks to make equity investment in insurance companies.

Through over 180 subdivided charts and tables, the report highlights the overall operation, regional development and the revenue of major insurance classifications by region and nationwide in China's insurance industry, in a bid to help related institutions and investors with a profound understanding of China insurance industry and make right decisions.