Listed insurers further strengthened their market positions in China's life insurance market after a yearlong regulatory crackdown.
The China Insurance Regulatory Commission, or CIRC, in 2017 heightened its scrutiny of some insurers' practice of selling short-term products designed as wealth-management tools, rather than as more traditional insurance policies. The six life insurers that are either listed or have listed parent companies tended to benefit both because of their existing scale and because their business models are generally less reliant on the targeted short-term policies.
As of the end of 2017, China Life Insurance Co. Ltd., New China Life Insurance Co. Ltd. and the life insurance units of Ping An Insurance (Group) Co. of China Ltd., China Pacific Insurance (Group) Co. Ltd., People's Insurance Co. (Group) of China Ltd. and China Taiping Insurance Holdings Co. Ltd. had a combined market share by total premium income of 49.2%, up from 42.6% a year earlier. China Taiping unit Taiping Life Insurance Co. Ltd. moved into the top 10 by market share during 2017, the other five having been there at 2016-end as well.
Listed insurers were not wholly immune from the crackdown: China Life, which relies more on sales of low-margin wealth management-type products than other listed insurers, saw total premium income fall 1.2% year over year in 2017, whereas Ping An Life, which focuses more on long-term, protection-oriented business, grew premium income 27%. That trend was intensified in January 2018, when Ping An Life Insurance Co. of China Ltd. overtook China Life as the biggest market player.
By contrast, Anbang Life Insurance Co. Ltd. saw its premium income drop 26.5% in 2017, during which it was hit by a temporary ban on new policy sales, although it still ranked third by market share at year-end, behind China Life and Ping An Life Insurance Co. of China Ltd. Its parent company, Anbang Insurance Group Co. Ltd., was seized by the CIRC in February 2018 as the regulator accused it of having risked its solvency strength through "law-breaking" activities.
There were 85 insurers in China's life market as of December 2017.

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