By Tian Hui, Member of the Research Team on “The Future Development of China’s Life Insurance Industry”, Research Institute of Finance, DRC

Research Report No. 97 (Total 4980) 2016-7-29

Abstract: Since their entry into the Chinese market in the 1990s, foreign life insurance companies have made contributions to increased premiums as a positive promoter and competitor for the development of life insurance market in China. However, as a whole, the foreign companies’ influence and international experience on the Chinese market are still limited, and the major reasons are as follows. The proportion of market share of foreign life insurance companies in China is obviously low; as regards innovative products and services, foreign life insurance companies could not play a leading role due to limited market influence. On the one hand, some institutional and policy-related barriers have made it hard for foreign life insurance companies to unleash their competitive power and bring their competitive edge into full play in Chinese market, and on the other hand, these barriers have curbed China to give free rein to the positive policy measures relating to the opening-up of its market. For the future, we should remove these negative barriers, unswervingly promote the opening-up process of life insurance industry, combine measures of opening-up with deepening reform, and take our mind off the worries about the competitiveness of Chinese companies in the further opening-up of insurance industry.

Key Words: life insurance companies, foreign investment, opening-up