Insurance industry's insurance premiums rebounded strongly in January, health insurance increased by 28% year-on-year, investment-linked insurance surged by 223%
Our reporter Su Xianggao
On March 5, the insurance premium data for January disclosed by the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission showed that the insurance industry showed a strong recovery in January, and the original premium income of the industry increased by 11.2% year-on-year.
Among them, income from the life insurance business, which accounts for 87% of industry premiums, increased by 13.8% year-on-year.
It is noteworthy that the premium income of two major types of insurance increased at a faster rate in January.
First, health insurance premium income reached 120.6 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 28.1%; second, new investment-linked insurance accounts for independent accounts reached 13.4 billion yuan, a sharp increase of 222.8% year-on-year.
The reason is that the growth rate of health insurance is catalyzed by the epidemic on the one hand, and on the other hand is related to the recovery of various industries after the epidemic is controlled; the surge in insurance premium income of investment-linked insurance has benefited from the better performance of the capital market since last year.
The deputy general manager of a medium-sized life insurance company told the "Securities Daily" reporter that the outbreak of the epidemic is not a good thing, but it provides an opportunity for the insurance industry to develop.
On the one hand, it has intensified consumers’ attention to their own health, and some young people have changed from passive insuring to active insuring. On the other hand, it has accelerated the online development of the insurance industry, and has contributed to non-touch insurance sales. Foreshadowing, it is conducive to the transformation and reform of the insurance industry.
With the widespread vaccination of vaccines, the insurance industry is expected to enter the development track this year.
Health insurance is expected to grow rapidly this year
The insurance industry is gradually getting rid of the trouble of the new crown epidemic and entering a growth track.
According to data released by the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, the insurance industry achieved a premium income of RMB 10,094 billion in January this year, an increase of 11.2% year-on-year.
Among them, personal insurance premiums reached 881.6 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 13.8%; property insurance premiums reached 127.8 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 4.3%.
The premium income of life insurance business, which accounts for nearly 90% of the industry's premiums, has grown rapidly, driving the overall recovery of the insurance industry.
Although the property insurance business has gotten rid of the impact of the epidemic, due to the comprehensive reform of auto insurance last year, insurance premiums have declined to a certain extent.
However, the property insurance business has little effect on the overall insurance premium income growth rate, and the impact of the comprehensive reform of auto insurance is also within the expectations of insurance companies, regulators and the capital market.
From the perspective of the three major businesses of life insurance, the premium income of life insurance, health insurance, and personal accident insurance in January was 748.1 billion yuan, 120.6 billion yuan, and 12.9 billion yuan, respectively, up 11.9%, 28.1%, and 10.2% year-on-year.
On the whole, the development of life insurance business has shown a continued rebound trend, accident insurance has grown steadily, and health insurance has become a “dark horse” driving the growth of life insurance premium income.
Health insurance is expected to continue to promote the overall growth of industry premiums this year.
Since February 1 this year, the old version of critical illness insurance has been officially suspended in accordance with regulatory regulations, and the new version of critical illness insurance is expected to further stimulate consumers' enthusiasm for insurance.
The head of Taikang Online Claims told the "Securities Daily" reporter that the biggest beneficiaries of the new regulations for critical illnesses are undoubtedly consumers.
The new version of Critical Illness Insurance has three advantages: one is that the coverage is wider, the other is that the classification is more optimized, and the third is that the compensation is more reasonable.
In addition to the expected growth rate of health insurance income, the growth rate of investment-linked insurance premiums is also quite impressive.
The data disclosed by the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission showed that in January, the newly-increased payment of independent accounts of investment-linked insurance reached 13.4 billion yuan, a sharp increase of 222.8% year-on-year.
In recent years, due to the high-risk nature of investment-linked insurance, various life insurance companies have been shrinking the scale of investment-linked insurance, which has led to continued sluggish growth in premium income in recent years.
The reason for the substantial increase in investment-linked insurance income growth in January this year was mainly due to the better equity market trends such as the stock market. Last year, investment-linked insurance accounts achieved relatively good returns, which promoted investment-linked insurance premium income in January this year. .
Affected by the comprehensive reform of auto insurance, the growth of property insurance premium income is still under pressure.
In January this year, the premium income of the property insurance industry was 127.8 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 4.3%.
In recent years, auto insurance premiums accounted for more than 60% of property insurance premiums, making it the largest income insurance category in the property insurance industry, and its overall impact on property insurance business has been significant.
Although there was a negative growth in property insurance premium income in January, from the month-on-month growth rate, the impact of the comprehensive reform of auto insurance is weakening.
In December last year, the original insurance premium income of property insurance business was 109.2 billion yuan, a year-on-year decline of 10%.
In contrast, the year-on-year decline in January this year has significantly narrowed.
Liu Xinqi, chief analyst of the non-bank financial industry of Guotai Junan, analyzed that the current growth rate of auto insurance premium income has fully reflected the impact of the comprehensive reform, and the high-risk financing guarantee insurance business has basically been cleared. It is expected that property insurance premium income will stabilize and rebound in 2021 .
All types of funds are deployed in insurance stocks
Spring River Plumbing Duck Prophet, as the insurance industry continues to recover, the capital market has begun to pay attention to the insurance industry, and various sources of funds have begun to actively buy insurance stocks.
Recently, mainstream securities firms such as Essence Securities, Yangtze River Securities, and Guangfa Securities have successively released research reports, optimistic about the multiple investment logic lines of insurance stocks, and recommended "actively increasing the allocation of insurance stocks."
The Shanghai-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Stock Connect CCDC’s shareholding records show that in the 40 trading days from January 1 to March 5 this year, Northbound Capital’s shareholding in China Pacific Insurance increased by 44%; its shareholding in Ping An increased by 7%; The shareholding in Xinhua Insurance increased by 6%; the shareholding in China Life increased by 3%.
The data on the top ten active trading stocks of Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect also shows that Ping An’s net purchases by foreign investors exceeded 5 billion yuan, second only to China Merchants Bank and ranked second in A-shares.
After the Lunar New Year holiday in the Year of the Ox, market styles switched rapidly. Popular stocks in the market such as liquor and new energy were sold in large numbers by foreign investors and domestic funds, triggering a sharp retreat in stock prices.
Pro-cyclical sectors such as banks, real estate, and insurance have been bought by institutions as defensive sectors.
Oriental Wealth Chioce data show that between February 18 and March 5, China Pacific Insurance rose 10%, Xinhua Insurance rose 8.8%, China Ping An rose 6.6%, PICC rose 3%, and only China Life fell 0.86%.
On the whole, insurance stocks are extremely resilient when the “group stocks” crash sharply.
In addition, the current price-earnings ratio of insurance stocks is generally low, which is much lower than that of liquor stocks such as Kweichow Moutai.
Since the fourth quarter of last year, some foreign institutions have begun to take stock of insurance stocks.
On February 25 this year, the world’s largest sovereign fund, the Norwegian Government’s Global Pension Fund, released position data showing that as of the end of 2020, the fund’s holdings contained 742 Chinese companies. Its largest A-share holding was not Kweichow Moutai, but Ping An of China.
Wu Pingping, an analyst at China Galaxy Securities, believes that in 2021, insurance companies have a good start and sales are good. The switching of new and old critical illness products will boost product sales. Consumers' purchasing power will gradually increase and the low base of sales in the same period last year will form a resonance of multiple favorable factors to promote insurance. In the first quarter, new orders and new business value (NBV) on the debt side of the company increased unexpectedly.
The continued recovery of the macro economy will support long-term bond interest rates, and the asset side is expected to continue to improve.
The resonance between the asset side and the liability side drives the insurance sector to be basically well-oriented.
(Securities Daily)