With the announcement of New China Insurance's 2022 annual results, the 2022 report card of the five largest A-share listed insurance companies was unveiled. On March 3, a reporter from Beijing Business Daily calculated that the total net profit attributable to the parent of the five largest listed insurance companies in 30 was 2022.1746 billion yuan, down 71.19% year-on-year, and the average daily profit was about 06 million yuan. Affected by the downward market shock, the investment side performed poorly, and the total investment income of the five listed insurance companies totaled 4.79 billion yuan, down 5.4681% year-on-year.

On the liability side, as the transformation of life insurance enters the deep water area, in the severe and complex market environment, the growth of new business value of life insurance of listed insurance companies continues to come under pressure, and some companies have made efforts to diversify their businesses and pay attention to the development of channels such as bancassurance. While the motor insurance premium of the property insurance sector recovered, the proportion of non-automobile business further increased.

Investment drags down net profit

Clear asset allocation portrait

According to the statistics of the Beijing Business Daily reporter, the total net profit attributable to the parent of the five major listed insurance companies in 2022 will be 1746.71 billion yuan, down 19.06% year-on-year, and the average daily profit will be about 4 million yuan.

From the perspective of profitability, the net profit of the five listed insurance companies rose and fell by four times. In 5, Ping An's net profit attributable to its parent will be 2022.837 billion yuan, still occupying the top position of the five companies. Chinese Life, Chinese Insurance Company, CPIC and Xinhua Insurance achieved net profits of 74.5 billion yuan, 320.82 billion yuan, 244.06 billion yuan and 246.09 billion yuan respectively.

In 2022, interest rates continued to fall and stock market volatility increased. In the complex investment environment, the total investment income of the five listed insurance companies totaled RMB5.4681 billion, down 57.18% year-on-year. From the perspective of investment income, the total investment return of the five insurers was in the range of 15.5%-2.5%, and the net investment return was in the range of 4.6%-3.94%.

What are the investment strategies of insurers in 2023? From the perspective of allocation structure, debt financial asset investment and equity asset allocation are still the main directions of the company's asset allocation. At the Chinese life performance meeting, Liu Hui, vice president of the company, said that in terms of fixed income, it will grasp the high interest rate, strengthen the solid income bottom position in fixed income investment, focus on improving coupon income and asset duration, and match long-term and low-risk interest rate bonds. In terms of equity investment, we should stabilize equity investment and coordinate income enhancement and volatility management.

Deng Bin, chief investment officer of Ping An, also revealed that it will remain under the traction of strategic asset allocation, strengthen tactical allocation, including sector rotation, timing selection, and rhythm control, and will create excess returns through investment channels by finding the best investment managers in the market.

Unlike the insurance industry's investment side in 2022, with China's economic recovery, industry insiders agree that the asset side and liability side of the insurance industry will improve simultaneously. With the recovery of the stock and bond markets in 2023, the investment income and net profit of listed insurance companies are also expected to recover. According to the forecast of the analyst team of Zheshang Securities, the yield of 2023-year treasury bonds in the first quarter of 10 basically fluctuated slightly around 2.9%, the downward trend of the 750-day treasury bond yield curve slowed down, and the equity market performed better.

Multi-channel "shine"

The scale of agents is bottomed out

In the context of the deep transformation of the life insurance industry and the impact of the epidemic, the growth rate of new business value and premium income of various companies will continue to be under pressure in 2022.

From the perspective of business performance, the value of new life insurance business of the five listed insurers in 2022 will decline to varying degrees. The value of CPIC Life new business fell by 31.4% to RMB92.05 billion. The value of PICC Life Insurance's new business was RMB26,69 million, down 17.3% year-on-year.

While personal insurance channels are declining, some insurance companies are actively expanding diversified channels. In 2022, the new business value of Ping An Life Insurance channel increased by 15.9% year-on-year, and the premium scale and business value of China Life Insurance bancassurance channel also achieved rapid growth, with the total premium of bancassurance channel reaching 634.15 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 28.6%.

As the industry enters a period of transformation, life insurance companies in the industry continue to take the initiative to clear backward production capacity and continue to promote the transformation of the agent team to high-quality, professional and efficient. In 2022, the number of agents of listed insurance companies will once again "bottom". CPIC Life had an average monthly insurance marketer of 27,9, a year-on-year decrease of 46.9%; As of the end of 2022, the company's "big personal insurance" marketers were 9,74, a decrease of 47.61%.

Taking Ping An Life as an example, the company's per capita new business value of agents increased by 2022.22% year-on-year, and the operating profit of life and health insurance business increased by 1.16% year-on-year.

"Judging from these data, the downward trend of agent scale has gradually stabilized." Song Zhanjun, deputy secretary-general of the China Insurance Research Institute of Beijing Technology and Business University, said that some reinsurance institutions believe that the 300 million insurance agents in China's insurance market can meet the needs of consumers to buy insurance. On the basis of the current team of life insurance agents, the next step should be to further increase the per capita production capacity and improve the agent retention rate.

Regarding the development of the industry in 2023, Bai Tao, chairman of Chinese Shou, said: "First, the recovery of the industry is accelerating; Second, industry transformation is accelerating; Third, the positive factors supporting the growth of the value of the entire industry are accelerating; Fourth, the core backbone of the sales force and per capita production capacity are stable, laying the foundation for the recovery of the entire industry; Fifth, the bancassurance channel is making efforts. ”

Bai Tao also said that driven by the new momentum of marketing system reform, digital operation, comprehensive development and ecological construction, the structural and long-term growth space of the life insurance industry is opening.

Car insurance warms up

Non-car proportion "next city"

Different from the "bleak" life insurance business, in 2022, the revenue of the "old three" property and casualty insurance companies, Ping An Property & Casualty, CPIC Property & Casualty Insurance, and PICC Property & Casualty Insurance, all increased. Among them, the premium growth rate of Ping An Property Insurance and PICC Property & Casualty Insurance was 10.4% and 8.3% respectively. CPIC's property insurance business revenue also grew by 11.6%.

In terms of auto insurance business, after the comprehensive reform of auto insurance, the reform results of "improving quality, reducing costs and increasing efficiency" in the property and casualty insurance industry have initially appeared, coupled with the increase in automobile consumer demand, the decline in vehicle risk rate, and the reduction of catastrophe during the flood season in 2022, the motor insurance business of the three companies will continue to warm up in 2022, and the motor insurance premium income will exceed 6%.

With the release of the "Exclusive Provisions for New Energy Vehicle Commercial Insurance of the Insurance Association of China (Trial)", the "old three" of property insurance have also "expanded their territory" in the new energy vehicle insurance market. Among them, CPIC Property & Casualty Insurance will increase the premium of new energy vehicles by more than 2022% in 90, and its business costs will be reduced. PICC Property & Casualty Insurance also said that the company's new energy vehicle insurance maintained rapid growth.

At the same time, the three companies are also actively expanding their non-automotive business and optimizing the proportion of non-auto insurance business. Specifically, CPIC Property & Casualty's non-motor insurance revenue in 2022 increased by 18.8% year-on-year, accounting for 43.2%; PICC Property & Casualty's non-motor insurance business accounted for 44.1%, an increase of 1 percentage point year-on-year. According to industry forecasts, leading insurers are expected to further expand their profit margins by virtue of their advantages in rates and channels.

According to Zhu Shaojie, an expert from the Department of Insurance of Shanghai University of International Business and Economics, although China's car ownership is still in the growth channel, and car insurance premium income has risen to a very high scale with the growth of car ownership, due to fierce market competition, the profitability of car insurance business is not good. Both leading insurers and small and medium-sized insurers need to seek breakthroughs from the non-auto insurance business and gain business growth points.

Beijing Business Daily reporter Chen Tingting, Hu Yongxin, Li Xiumei