The performance reports of the five major listed insurance companies' bancassurance divisions show simultaneous growth in both volume and price; after rule reshaping, competition has entered the "deep water zone."

Ask AI · How Will New Regulatory Rules Reshape Competition in the Bank-Insurance Market?

The bank-insurance channel has been put on “acceleration mode.” On April 7, Beijing Business Daily reporters reviewed the 2025 annual reports of five major A-share listed insurance companies and found that, for several leading life insurance companies, the combined premium income from their bank-insurance channel was approximately 312.872 billion yuan, with a year-on-year increase as high as 41.5%. What has drawn even greater attention from the market is the explosive surge in new business value through this channel. In addition, the year-on-year growth rate of new business value in bank-insurance for multiple companies exceeded 100%.

Just as these impressive results were being disclosed in quick succession, the regulatory authorities issued a new notice on further refining the “report-and-operation integration” for the bank-insurance channel. In the view of industry insiders, with the tightening of expense-related standards, stronger accountability mechanisms, and regulatory measures to plug loopholes—this shift from “cost-driven” to “value-driven” transformation has only just entered deep waters.

A trillion-yuan track emerges: Bank-insurance kicks into “acceleration mode”

2025 is the “explosion year” for the bank-insurance channel.

China Life’s bank-insurance gross premiums crossed the trillion-yuan mark, reaching 110.874 billion yuan, with a year-on-year increase of 45.5%. Closely following is New China Life, whose bank-insurance channel total premiums were 72.102 billion yuan, up 39.5% year on year. PICC Life’s bank-insurance channel premium income was 68.278 billion yuan, up 33.5% from the same period last year. China Pacific Life’s bank-insurance channel scale gross premiums reached 61.618 billion yuan, up 46.4% year on year. Based on the combined performance of these four companies, total premium income from the bank-insurance channel was approximately 312.872 billion yuan, representing an overall increase of more than 40% compared with the same period last year.

Behind the numbers is a reshaping of the commercial logic of the bank-insurance channel. For a long time, bank-insurance has been seen as a “scale-first” channel, with limited value contribution. But against the backdrop of the continued shrinkage of the individual insurance agent team and difficulties in agent recruitment, the bank-insurance channel—leveraging banks’ natural customer base and their inherent preference for wealth management—has been becoming a key path for insurers to reach customers in a low-cost and efficient way. An industry insider made an analogy to Beijing Business Daily: “The channel is not only a sales route; it is also a value filter.”

Even more noteworthy are the figures for new business value, which is the core metric for measuring the profitability and growth quality of life insurance business. The new business value from bank-insurance for China Pacific Life, PICC Life, and New China Life all grew by more than 100% year on year. China Ping An, although it did not separately disclose its bank-insurance total premiums, reported that its new business value from bank-insurance within life and health insurance business reached 9.408 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of as much as 138%.

What do these numbers mean? Guo Shiliang, a financial commentator, told Beijing Business Daily in an interview that when the bank-insurance channel achieves such growth, it indicates that the channel has already explored new cooperation models, achieving strong collaboration and complementary strengths. For banks and other financial institutions, they will prioritize cooperation with large, highly specialized, high-quality insurers. The growth of the bank-insurance channel reflects that both sides have already found a suitable direction for development, which is conducive to achieving mutual benefit and win-win outcomes.

Meanwhile, facing a market environment of long-term declining interest rates, listed insurers in 2025 accelerated their pace of business transformation and made dividend-type products and other floating-yield products key areas for their layout. Based on annual report data, dividend insurance is accelerating its move to become the main product in the bank-insurance channel, and the proportion of dividend insurance for several insurers has increased noticeably.

Sun Ting, Chief Analyst for Non-Banking Financials at Dongwu Securities, pointed out that with the deepening of “report-and-operation integration” for the bank-insurance channel and the backdrop of the relaxation of restrictions on the number of partnerships between banks’ branches and insurance companies, the competitive advantages and sales/marketing enthusiasm of leading insurers in the bank-insurance market have increased significantly.

After the rules are reshaped: Shifting to “value-driven”

The high-growth momentum of the bank-insurance channel coincides precisely with the key period when regulatory policies are further tightened.

Just as major insurers were disclosing their bank-insurance performance results intensively, the regulatory authorities recently issued a notice to the industry titled “Notice on Further Strengthening the Management of Bank Agency Channel Fees.” Considered by industry insiders as a “gap-filling” document, the notice tightens requirements across three dimensions: fee/expense-related criteria, accountability mechanisms, and regulatory measures. It requires insurance companies to incorporate compliance management into their corporate performance evaluation and accountability mechanisms, and to establish an industry-wide notification mechanism for violations and typical cases.

This means the competition rules for the bank-insurance channel are being rewritten. At an earnings meeting, Wang Lianwen, Vice President of New China Life, said, “‘Report-and-operation integration’ has been pushed forward in depth; consumer rights protection mechanisms are being continuously improved. Customers’ sense of improved experience with products and services has increased. Banks have even higher expectations for their partners’ comprehensive operating and service capabilities. The industry must seek development within compliance and create value through development.”

In the face of this change, major insurers have already started laying out their plans. For example, New China Life has already clarified its 2026 development path. Wang Lianwen revealed that in 2026, New China Life’s bank-insurance business will focus on the core strategy of “advancing steadily while maintaining stability, and making progress while remaining stable,” implementing three major initiatives: further deepening bank cooperation, seeking win-win development with partner banks by jointly working on doing a great job in the financial “five big articles”; further strengthening technology enablement to improve the team’s professional qualities and comprehensive service levels; further expanding the service ecosystem to meet customers’ diversified, full-lifecycle insurance protection needs.

China Ping An, meanwhile, has rolled out a mature business management and development model. At the earnings conference, Guo Xiaotao, Co-CEO of China Ping An, introduced that this model covers multiple dimensions, including management of the sales team, product design, fee/expense control, and construction of the middle-office systems. From actual results, Ping An Bank’s bank-insurance channel per-capita productivity and per-branch productivity are both at leading levels in the industry, with advantages several times greater than those of peers. In its 2025 annual report, China Ping An also said it will continue to pursue a diversified layout, with a focus on deepening cooperation with state-owned banks and leading joint-stock banks.

Other listed insurers have also disclosed their respective bank-insurance strategies in their annual reports. China Taiping has proposed that it should seize opportunities in the market, deepen the development of mid-to-high-end customers, and consolidate the foundation for value growth. In its annual report, China Life proposed that it should continue to strengthen bank cooperation and further tap the sales potential of both online and offline channels.

Overall, the bank-insurance channel is entering a critical period of compliance-oriented and refined transformation. In the view of industry insiders, although bank-insurance business will continue to grow in the future, the growth rate may slow down as a result. Competition will shift from simply “cost-driven” to “value-driven”—meaning that in the future, the industry will compete based on products, services, and professional capabilities.

Guo Shiliang’s analysis suggests that in the future, bank-insurance channels will place even greater emphasis on high-quality development. They will work hard from the product side, service side, and more, further improving product innovation capabilities and reshaping the team’s professional capabilities and service levels. They will use technologies such as internet big data and AI to enhance users’ experience and improve the level of high-quality service, and build a new development model characterized by high-quality and professional services.

Beijing Business Daily Reporter Hu Yongxin