Insurance industry continues growth

The premium income of Datong Insurance Brokers Co Ltd, one of the largest insurance brokers in China, is expected to reach 4.5 billion yuan ($678.4 million) this year, the company's chairman said on Wednesday.

Due to increases in professional insurance brokers' quality and quantity, the industry's business scale has exceeded 10 billion yuan ($1.5 billion) so far this year, with the growth rate exceeding 100 percent for three consecutive years.

Several factors, including government policy support, the large-scale application of mobile Internet technology and an influx of capital and talent, have contributed to the rapid development of insurance brokers, said Jiang Ming, chairman and president of Beijing Datong Insurance Brokers Co Ltd.

He predicted that in 2018, life insurance would maintain a growth rate of over 50 percent, with its new market scale exceeding 15 billion yuan ($2.3 billion), while the growth rate of property-casualty insurance would remain stable.

With Internet giants flooding in, technology would become the focus of an intensified insurance brokers' market competition in the future, he added.

In 2017, Datong Insurance is expected to provide professional consulting services to more than 700,000 consumers, with its coverage in accident insurance and critical illness insurance reaching hundreds of billions of yuan and 40 billion yuan, respectively.

The total assets of insurance brokers and agencies have reached 17.1 billion yuan in 2016, up 26 percent from the previous year according to industry data.