The establishment of China Fishery Mutual Aid Insurance Society is an important symbol of the implementation of major structural reforms of fishery mutual aid insurance. Fishery insurance is an important part of agricultural insurance, and fishery mutual insurance is an important organizational form of fishery insurance underwriting
Wen | Caijing reporter Ding Yan and Song Wenjuan
Editor| Yuan Man
At the beginning of the New Year, the first insurance license in 2022 opened the reform of China's fishery mutual insurance system.
On February 15, the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (CBIRC) issued the Notice on the Approval of the Establishment of the China Fishery Mutual Insurance Society, agreeing that the China Fishery Mutual Insurance Association and Zhejiang, Shandong, Fujian, Guangdong, Ningbo, Jiangsu and Hebei Fishery Mutual Insurance Associations should be the main initiating members, and 111 (famous) fishery service organizations, fishery fishing enterprises and fishery practitioners such as the Liaoning Fishery Mutual Insurance Association, Hongdong Fishery Co., Ltd. and Chen Zebo should be the general initiators to jointly initiate the establishment of the China Fishery Mutual Insurance Society.
Zhu Junsheng, head of research at the China Insurance and Pension Research Center at Tsinghua University's Wudaokou School of Finance, told Caijing, "In recent years, with the gradual deepening of the management reform of social organizations and the increasingly strict supervision of financial insurance by the state, the previous 'association' system of fishery mutual insurance does not meet the requirements of laws, regulations and policies. The reform of the management of the community poses a major challenge to the development of fisheries mutual protection. The previous management system and structure of the 'association' conflicted with the overall requirements of the state to promote the management reform of the community, which restricted the development of mutual protection of fisheries. ”
Zhu Junsheng believes that "the establishment of China's fishery mutual aid insurance society is an important symbol of the implementation of major structural reforms of fishery mutual aid insurance. Fishery insurance is an important part of agricultural insurance, and fishery mutual insurance is an important organizational form of fishery insurance underwriting. ”
It is understood that the proposed chairman of the fishery mutual insurance society is Yang Bin and the proposed general manager is Zhang Jing. The initial operating capital is 500 million yuan, and the registered place is Beijing. At the same time, the CBIRC agreed to the simultaneous establishment of four provincial-level branches of China Fishery Mutual Insurance Society, including Liaoning, Dalian, Guangxi and Hainan.
The main sponsoring organization of China Fishery Mutual Insurance Society, China Fishery Mutual Insurance Association, formerly known as China Shipowners Mutual Insurance Association, was the initiating shareholder of Huanong Insurance. Zhang Jing, the proposed general manager of China Fishery Mutual Insurance Society, has also served as the assistant general manager, director of the office and consultant of Huanong Insurance.
Institutional reform: Fisheries Mutual Insurance Society was approved for establishment
The first insurance license in 2022 was spent on the China Fishery Mutual Aid Insurance Society, and since the regulatory direction was clear in 2020, its preparation has ushered in new progress.
On February 15, the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (CBIRC) issued the Notice on the Approval of the Establishment of the China Fishery Mutual Insurance Society, which pointed out that it agreed that the China Fishery Mutual Insurance Association and the Fishery Mutual Insurance Association of Zhejiang Province, Shandong Province, Fujian Province, Guangdong Province, Ningbo City, Jiangsu Province and Hebei Province should be the main initiating members, and 111 (famous) fishery service organizations, fishery fishing enterprises and fishery practitioners such as the Liaoning Fishery Mutual Insurance Association, Hongdong Fishery Co., Ltd. and Chen Zebo should be jointly initiated as general initiating members to jointly initiate the establishment of the China Fishery Mutual Insurance Society.
Why does Yang Bin, the proposed chairman of China Fishery Mutual Insurance Society, also allow people? According to caijing reporters checking the official website of the China Fishery Mutual Protection Association, in the leadership column of the fifth association, Yang Bin served as the secretary general of the China Fisheries Mutual Protection Association from October 2016 to July 2020.
The CBRC stressed that the preparatory team of the Fishery Mutual Insurance Society shall complete the preparatory work within one year from the date of receipt of the approval preparation documents, and shall not engage in any business activities during the preparatory period, and shall not change the main founding members, the proposed chairman of the board of directors and the proposed general manager without approval.
At the same time, the CBRC pointed out that the preparatory team of the Fishery Mutual Insurance Society should handle the preparatory matters in strict accordance with relevant laws and regulations, and report the relevant preparations to the CBIRC in a timely manner. After the completion of the preparatory work, the application for opening shall be submitted in accordance with the relevant provisions and procedures. After the CBIRC passes the acceptance and issues the opening approval, it is registered with the market supervision and management department.
The history of the establishment of the fishery mutual insurance society dates back to 2020, when Premier Li Keqiang and other leading comrades of the State Council approved the "Report on the Work Related to the Reform of the Fishery Mutual Insurance System".
On May 25 of the same year, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs and the Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission jointly issued the "Notice on Promoting the Work Related to the Reform of the Fishery Mutual Aid System System", which clarified that the China Fishery Mutual Insurance Association will take the lead in joining hands with the fishery mutual insurance associations of relevant provinces (cities) to initiate the establishment of a national fishery mutual insurance institution with independent legal personality, and determined the overall idea of the reform of "stripping the insurance business of the association and establishing a professional insurance institution to undertake", forming an overall reform plan for the fishery mutual insurance system.
Judging from the specific implementation steps originally formulated, the China Fishery Mutual Insurance Association will first take the lead in completing the declaration and preparation of the national fishery mutual insurance institution as the main initiator, and will be approved by the Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission to prepare and organize acceptance. Secondly, after the establishment of the national fishery mutual insurance institution, the China Fishery Mutual Insurance Association and the local association will complete the declaration and preparation of the relevant provincial (municipal) fishery mutual insurance institutions.
Main Promoter: Former founding shareholder of Huanong Insurance
The China Fisheries Mutual Protection Association, formerly known as the China Fishing Boat Owners Mutual Protection Association, was established in 1984. It is a non-profit social group that is in charge of the Ministry of Agriculture and approved by the Ministry of Civil Affairs, and voluntarily formed by the vast number of fishermen and other units and individuals engaged in fishery production and operation or serving fishery production and operation throughout the country, and implements mutual aid insurance, and is headquartered in Beijing. In July 2007, with the approval of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, the China Fisheries Mutual Protection Association was changed.
During the preparation period of Huanong Insurance, a listed company replied to investors that Huanong Insurance had reached a consensus on comprehensive strategic cooperation with the China Shipowners Mutual Insurance Association during the preparatory period and discussed the details of comprehensive cooperation, so as to integrate the team and network of the Shipowners Mutual Insurance Association and open a fishery insurance business.
Liu Shenli, the first chairman of Huanong Insurance, was the vice chairman of the first council of the China Fishing Boat Owners Mutual Aid Association. Zhang Jing, the proposed general manager of China Fishery Mutual Insurance Society, who was approved this time, also served as the assistant general manager, director of the office and consultant of Huanong Insurance.
According to Huanong Insurance's solvency report in the first quarter of 2015, the China Fishing Boat Owners Mutual Aid Association and the Guangdong Fishing Boat Owners Mutual Aid Association held 1.7% and 1.1% of the shares respectively. Subsequently, in the solvency report in the second quarter of 2015, the China Fishing Boat Owners Mutual Aid Association and the Guangdong Fishing Boat Owners Mutual Aid Association held 1.1% and 1.1% of the shares respectively. To this day, the China Fishery Mutual Insurance Association still holds 0.55% of huanong insurance shares.
A former executive of Huanong Insurance told Caijing, "The China Shipowners Mutual Insurance Association was led by the Ministry of Agriculture at that time, and there were some fishery mutual insurance organizations in various places. Because it is the initiating shareholder of Huanong Insurance, some of their businesses we will do some co-insurance, fishing boats, fishermen-related property insurance, accident insurance and other businesses. However, the Fisheries Mutual Insurance Association does not only cooperate with Huanong, it cooperates with many market players in the insurance industry. ”
Li Jing, chairman of Zhonghui Mutual Insurance, another mutual insurance organization, also has a very long relationship with the China Shipowners Mutual Insurance Association, and Li Jing's first job was in the China Shipowners Mutual Insurance Association, which opened her enlightenment on mutual insurance. At that time, in 1992, after graduating from Peking University with a major in law, Li Jing was assigned to the China Shipowners Mutual Insurance Association, mainly engaged in underwriting and claims related to shipping.
Operating mechanism: Completely different from the nature of network mutual assistance
It is worth noting that on January 28, 2022, the "mutual insurance" that had insured more than 100 million people was shut down. Prior to this, on January 15, 2021, "Meituan Mutual" issued a shutdown announcement saying that due to business adjustments, it was officially shut down at 24:00 on January 31, 2021.
On the one hand, the supervision regulates a series of online mutual aid platforms, on the other hand, the China Fishery Mutual Aid Insurance Society ushered in the approval on February 15, is there a contradiction in the logic of this?
In this regard, Zhu Junsheng explained to the Caijing reporter, "These two things are not completely related, because the network mutual aid was not a licensed institution of the Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission before, but the China Fisheries Mutual Insurance Association was originally registered with the Ministry of Civil Affairs, and it has been outside the supervision, but it is different from the previous network mutual aid insurance." ”
"At the same time, the China Fisheries Mutual Insurance Association was originally supervised by the Ministry of Agriculture, followed by coordination with the Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, and finally through the coordination between ministries and commissions, and finally approved by Premier Li Keqiang of the State Council, so the Fisheries Mutual Insurance Society is a top-down product, which is completely different from network mutual assistance." Zhu Junsheng said frankly.
Zhu Junsheng pointed out that "the inability of traditional 'associations' to be included in insurance supervision restricts the development of fishery mutual insurance. Since 2006, especially after the promulgation of the Agricultural Insurance Regulations in 2012, the China Fishery Association has not been included in the supervision of insurance business, and fishery mutual insurance has been in an embarrassing situation. On the one hand, the legal status is not clear, and the legality of operating agriculture and agriculture-related insurance is controversial. On the other hand, since it is not included in the supervision of the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, the association does not meet the conditions for undertaking policy-oriented agricultural insurance for central subsidies. ”
"On the one hand, the decoupling of politics and society has made it difficult to continue the previous management system; on the other hand, the Ministry of Civil Affairs has cancelled the registration and approval of branches (representatives) of social groups and clearly stipulated that branches (representatives) of social groups are not allowed to open basic bank accounts, which has brought great challenges to the operation of grass-roots institutions." Zhu Junsheng said.
Professor Guo Zhenhua, director of the Insurance Department of Shanghai University of International Business and Economics, told Caijing, "In fact, there is a fishery mutual insurance association all over the world, which belongs to an international traditional type of thing, and the situation is relatively special." One such scenario is that fisheries risk may be a situation in which insurers are reluctant to cover because of the higher risk and higher payouts. It is difficult or too expensive for people or companies engaged in this type of work to buy insurance from insurance companies, so they form a mutual aid system. Guo Zhenhua said.
According to official data from the International Alliance of Insurance Mutual Cooperation Insurance Organizations, in 2017, about 5,100 mutual insurance organizations worldwide jointly generated $1.3 trillion in premium income, accounting for about a quarter of the global insurance market, with total assets of $8.9 trillion, 1.16 million practitioners, and 922 million members.
In the 11 years from 2007 to 2017, global mutual insurance achieved a growth of 29.8%, far higher than the growth rate of the global insurance market. The global insurance market grew by 19.8% over the same period. In 11 years, the share of mutual insurance in the European insurance market increased from 24.3% to 32.7%, and the share of the North American market rose from 29.8% to 38.3%.
According to Sha Yinhua, chairman of Yinhua Gold Business Consulting, mutual insurance is a very popular form of organization in foreign countries, and although the model of mutual aid cooperatives has taken a detour in China for thirty years, the form of mutual insurance has always existed in foreign countries. Sha Yinhua pointed out, "Mutual aid cooperatives are non-profit institutions, if they have the inherent motivation for sustainable development and a well-designed organizational structure, the products meet the basic requirements of insurance, and the transparency is high, such an organization, I believe the government and the market will welcome it." ”
The general manager of a head property insurance branch told Caijing reporter, "The risk of fishery business is very high, and in some areas it exists in the form of a co-insurance body, which has both the normal risk of ship insurance and the insurance that covers the personal risk of fishery employers." ”
According to another head property insurance company shipping insurance underwriter pointed out, "the ship insurance of fishing vessels involves the liability of the crew employer, accident insurance, because the fishery risk is high, the compensation is very high, some insurance companies are mixed in the ship insurance to insure, which is more in Zhoushan, Shandong, Shanghai is very few, there are co-insurance bodies and exclusive cases." ”
It is worth noting that the development of mutual insurance may still require the support of corresponding top-level design and legal policies.
Li Zhuyong, vice president and chief risk officer and head of compliance of Chinese Insurance Group, once wrote that in practice, the mutual insurance activities carried out by traditional mutual insurance organizations such as the China Shipowners Mutual Insurance Association and the China Fisheries Mutual Insurance Association do not apply to the insurance law. Sunshine Agricultural Mutual Insurance Company and Xinmei Life Mutual Insurance Company, which were approved and established by the former China Insurance Regulatory Commission, are pilot explorations and have no legislative basis.
Li Zhuyong said frankly that in recent years, a large number of various types of network mutual assistance programs have been positioned as pure public welfare products, and have not been included in the regulatory scope of the China Banking and Insurance Commission. From the perspective of overseas situations, mutual insurance is generally regulated by the insurance law, for example, according to Article 2 of the Japanese Insurance Law, the insurance contract includes the mutual aid contract in scope. For "quasi-insurance" activities such as online mutual aid schemes, whether they belong to the insurance business according to their legal requirements[9], and if they belong to the insurance business, the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission is responsible for supervising.