A recent research report released by the Insurance Association of China shows that as of the end of last year, the annual premiums of life insurance companies' bancassurance channels have risen for four consecutive years, which is much higher than the overall growth rate of life insurance premiums.
Industry insiders believe that the current bancassurance business is significantly different from the previous bancassurance business, which is also a bancassurance channel. Insurance companies and banks continue to explore high-value-added cooperation models. But at the same time, the risk of interest spread loss and the risk of long-term insurance and short-term insurance that may exist in the “top-stream” product of the bancassurance channel need to be paid attention to, and the “small account” problem that plagues the bancassurance business also needs to be further solved.
Bancassurance premiums last year
A year-on-year increase of nearly 20%
Statistics from the Insurance Association show that in 2021, the bancassurance business of my country's life insurance companies will achieve original insurance premiums of about 1.2 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 18.63%, showing a growth trend for four consecutive years. In comparison, last year, my country's life insurance companies achieved original insurance premiums of about 3.12 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 5% on a comparable basis. It can be seen that the growth rate of bancassurance channel business is much higher than that of the overall business. The bancassurance channel premiums exceeded one-third of the total premiums of life insurance companies, and the business share increased by 3.73 percentage points compared with the previous year.
Huang Dazhi, a researcher at the Star Map Financial Research Institute, analyzed the "Securities Daily" reporter that the proportion of bancassurance channel premiums has increased in the past two years. On the one hand, the channel's own business has grown steadily, and on the other hand, the weak growth in premiums of individual insurance channels has led to bancassurance channels. The proportion of channels increased passively.
Historical data shows that in 2011, the bancassurance channel's premiums exceeded that of the salesperson channel for the first time, accounting for 52.63%, making it the largest channel in my country's life insurance industry. In the following years, the market entities of bancassurance business have diverged, and banking insurance companies have emerged. From the product point of view, the main products of the bancassurance channel are short-term, high current-price wealth management products.
In 2015, with the cancellation of the qualification examination for insurance salespersons, the number of salespersons increased sharply, driving the rapid development of the individual insurance business. The leading entities rely on the advantages of individual insurance and no longer value the scale of the bancassurance business. Under the influence of various factors, the proportion of bancassurance business gradually declined. In 2017, with the release of the "Notice of the China Insurance Regulatory Commission on Regulating the Product Development and Design Behaviors of Life Insurance Companies" (known in the industry as "Circular 134"), the bancassurance channel business plummeted. By 2018, its business in life insurance companies The proportion of business dropped to about 30%.
Since then, the bancassurance channel business has once again opened a channel of gradual increase, and by the end of last year, the premium has achieved four consecutive increases. "Now the main product of the bancassurance channel is no longer the previous wealth management products such as universal insurance, and it pays more attention to the function of protection and long-term savings. This is a major change." Huang Dazhi said.
In 2019, the "Administrative Measures for the Agency Insurance Business of Commercial Banks" issued by the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission pointed out that in the agency insurance business of commercial banks, vigorously develop long-term savings and risk protection insurance products, and continuously adjust and optimize the agency insurance business structure of commercial banks.
From the perspective of the transformation effect, in 2020, the original insurance premium income of long-term insurance in the bancassurance channel will be 612 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 4.3%. Among them, the new single installment premium income of the original insurance was 224.9 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 10.9%. "Policies promote the transformation and upgrading of bancassurance business, and the proportion of regular payment business has increased significantly." The Insurance Association concluded. In 2021, insurance companies will pay more attention to optimizing the business structure and the growth of intrinsic value, and continue to expand the volume of regular payment business. The annual new single original insurance premium income will be 704.086 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 15.05%. Among them, the new single installment premium income of the original insurance was 267.756 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 19.04%.
From the perspective of the operating entities of the bancassurance channel, a total of 84 life insurance companies carried out this business last year, and from the perspective of market concentration, the market shares of the top ten companies in all calibers continued to decline, indicating that market-oriented competition is becoming more and more important. for full.
Judging from the main products of the bancassurance channel, the report of the Insurance Industry Association shows that the incremental whole life insurance product has a high degree of capital flexibility, and its diverse functions make it stand out from the competition and occupy an absolute mainstream position in the bancassurance market. Whole life insurance occupies seven of the top ten annual sales of regular products.
In the APP of a commercial bank, the reporter checked the insurance column. Among the "life insurance" products, there are a total of 43 life insurance products. Among them, 40 are whole life insurance, and from the product details, most of these whole life insurances are incremental whole life insurance. For example, the introduction of the whole life insurance product of a personal insurance company in the first place is: "Lock in lifetime protection, the effective insurance amount increases by 3.5% every year to lifetime; the death protection is not lower than the premium paid."
"Top stream" products
Risks such as spread losses need to be paid attention to
In recent years, life insurance companies have further increased their emphasis on bancassurance channels. Not only small and medium-sized insurance companies have attached great importance to them, but large companies have also re-deployed the track and continued to explore high-value bancassurance cooperation models.
For example, Ping An of China put forward the concept of "New Bancassurance", and deepened cooperation with Ping An Bank to help build a new talent team of Ping An Bank; New China Insurance adhered to the development strategy of taking into account scale and value, continued to build teams, and cultivated branches to drive production capacity. Improve operational efficiency and achieve sound development of bancassurance channels; CPIC Life will restart bancassurance, create a full "core" business model, focus on strategic channels, and achieve high-quality development of bancassurance business. Based on the integrated layout of strategic positioning, customer needs, collaboration and data sharing, various insurance companies have begun to try to create new formats and new ecosystems for the high-quality development of bancassurance business.
Although the products and value of the bancassurance channel today are significantly different from those before, industry insiders believe that there are still some problems in the bancassurance channel that deserve vigilance. For example, an industry insider who did not want to be named told the Securities Daily reporter that the main function of real whole life insurance is to inherit wealth, but it will sacrifice capital liquidity and does not meet the needs of ordinary consumers. At present, various companies are crowded into the "track" of incremental whole life insurance, and they are fighting for compound interest growth value. In the low interest rate environment, insurance companies have a greater risk of interest margin loss. In the "Negative List of Personal Insurance Products" (2022 Edition) issued by the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission at the beginning of this year, it was also mentioned that the incremental ratio of the insured amount of the incremental whole life insurance exceeds the fixed interest rate, which is a serious misleading risk; the reduction of the insurance of the incremental whole life insurance The proportional design is unreasonable, and the plus insurance design has the risk of breaking through the pricing interest rate in disguised form.
The person in charge of the actuary of a life insurance company told the "Securities Daily" reporter that at present, the "small account" problem of the bancassurance business is still one of the main problems that plague the bancassurance business. "Small account" corresponds to "large account". The "big account" is the handling fee agreed in the written contract between the insurance company and the bank, which is the income of the insurance agency sales on behalf of the bank; Travel Incentives, etc. "In the case of competing for resources and handling fees, insurance companies have high operating costs and are also faced with greater compliance risks." The person said that it is not easy to solve this problem, and it is necessary for regulators to combine and regulate. .
