China: Central bank gives more details on liberalising insurance mart
Source: Asia Insurance Review | May 2018
Asia China Regulation
The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) has announced 11 measures aimed at further opening China’s financial services sector, including the insurance market, to foreign participants.
Of these 11 measures, four are specifically aimed at China’s insurance sector. PBOC stated that the new measures would be implemented “in the coming months and no later than year end”.
In a summary provided by international law firm Clyde & Co, the four insurance measures are:
- Total foreign equity holding limits in China life insurance companies will be lifted from its current cap of 50% to 51%, and within three years there will be no cap at all on foreign equity ownership of China life insurance companies.
- Qualified foreign investors will be allowed to conduct insurance agency and loss-adjusting business within China.
- Current limitations on the authorised scope of business of foreign-invested insurance brokers in China will be abolished to allow foreign-invested insurance brokers to enjoy the same authorised scope of business currently enjoyed by domestic-invested insurance brokers; and
- Foreign investors in foreign-invested China insurance companies will no longer need to maintain an authorised representative office in China for two years prior to making any such investment. A