China's insurance markets maintain strong premium growth: Fitch

BEIJING - China's insurance markets have maintained strong premium growth due to low insurance penetration, according to the latest report by Fitch Ratings.

For life insurance sales, tightened regulations did not stop insurance companies from maintaining their strong premium growth, Joyce Huang, director of insurance at Fitch Ratings, said in her China Insurance Outlook.

In April 2014, the China Insurance Regulatory Commission required that low-risk and long-duration products account for at least 20 percent of total premium sales and launched a crackdown on "high cash value" products, presenting more challenges to life insurance companies.

However, insurance companies have managed to sustain their premiums by shifting their product mix and expanding their marketing and sales forces, Huang said.

For Chinese non-life insurers, Fitch expects they will sustain good premium growth momentum due to steady new automobile sales, greater penetration of non-motor lines, and insurers' expansion of their distribution channels.

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