Announced by the State Administration of Financial Regulation
The operation of the insurance industry in 2023
(1) Premiums were RMB5.1 trillion, up by 9.1%
Payouts up 22% and net worth up 1%
(2) Life insurance companies grew by 10%
After August, the growth rate declined, and there was a large differentiation among insurance companies
(3) Property and casualty insurance companies grew by 6.7%
Dragged down by non-auto insurance, the growth rate is lower than in 2022
Beijing, Shanghai and other places have risen in the ranking of premiums
Life insurance premiums in economically developed regions are growing faster
1
The insurance industry will operate in 2023
Premiums exceeded $5 trillion for the first time, an increase of 9.1%
Payouts up 22% and net worth up 1%
Recently, the State Administration of Financial Supervision disclosed the data on the operation of the insurance industry in 2023, and Xiao Yuanqi, deputy director of the State Administration of Financial Regulation, and the heads of some internal institutions also mentioned the development of the industry in the past year when attending the press conference of the State Council Information Office.
1. Insurance industry in 2023: 9.1% increase in premiums, 21.9% increase in claims expenses, and 1.2% increase in net assets
Let's take a look at the performance of the insurance industry in 2023:
(1) The premium income of primary insurance was 5.1 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 9.1%
(2) Compensation and payment expenses were 1.89 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 21.9%
(3) The balance of insurance funds was 27.6 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 10.5%, and 25.4 trillion yuan of various financing support was provided for economic and social development through bonds, stocks, equity investment, etc., an increase of 2.9 trillion yuan from the beginning of the year
(4) The total assets of insurance companies were 29.96 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 10.4%
(5) The net cash flow from operating activities of insurance companies was 1.71 trillion yuan
At the end of 2023, the composite and core solvency ratios were 196.5% and 127.8%, respectively.
Among them, property insurance companies were 236.5% and 204.3%, respectively, and life insurance companies were 186.2% and 110.3%, respectively.
2. Premium income exceeded 5 trillion yuan for the first time! Life insurance contributed the most, and the growth rate of property insurance was lower than that of the same period last year...
From the perspective of premium growth, after experiencing the previous comprehensive reform of auto insurance and the three-year trough period of the individual generation team, the premium income of the insurance industry in 2023 will exceed 5 trillion for the first time!
Moreover, the premium growth rate of 9.1% is also the best result in the past four years after 2019.
This is mainly due to the long-lost rapid growth of the life insurance industry, with the premium income of life insurance companies in 2023 being 3.5 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 10%, contributing 7% to the premium growth rate of the industry.
In terms of property and casualty insurance companies, due to the slowdown in non-motor insurance such as health insurance, the premium growth rate in 2023 will be lower than that of the same period in 2022, contributing only 2.1% to the growth rate of the industry.
Therefore, the growth trend of the insurance industry in 2023 is consistent with the change in the premium growth rate of the life insurance industry.
It should be noted that although the insurance industry's liabilities have achieved rapid growth in terms of premiums for a long time, the growth rate of claims expenses has been faster due to factors such as the recovery of travel.
In addition, the continuous volatility of the capital market last year also led to pressure on the investment income of insurance companies, with the return on financial investment declining at the end of the third quarter, and the growth rate of net assets at the end of the year was also low.
2
Life insurance companies grow by 10%
3.5% of products were stopped to stimulate consumption
After August, the growth rate declined, and there was a large differentiation among insurance companies
1. The growth rate of life insurance business is nearly 13%, driving life insurance companies to achieve double-digit premium growth!
According to the data of life insurance companies, the premium income of life insurance business was 2.76 trillion yuan, and the growth rate was the highest at 12.8%.
In the context of declining interest rates, superimposed wealth management products have fully entered the era of net worth, and funds and other products are affected by capital market shocks, and net breaking also occurs from time to time.
Therefore, more and more consumers want to buy products with certain returns and long-term lock-in, and insurance has been hotly promoted by bank wealth managers and insurance practitioners with this advantage.
In addition, the news that traditional life insurance products priced at 3.5% will be discontinued at the end of July has stimulated consumption, and the premiums of life insurance business have grown rapidly, contributing 8.2% growth to life insurance companies.
However, due to the replacement of some functions of health insurance represented by critical illness insurance, coupled with the rush to buy before the adjustment of the definition of critical illness, many people who just need it have already purchased it.
Therefore, the growth of health insurance has been weak in the past two years, and accident insurance has continued to grow negatively since 2023 due to the impact of the new regulations.
From this point of view, the most popular insurance products are still with a high "savings" nature.
This is why after the suspension of 3.5% pricing products, the premium growth rate of life insurance companies continued to decline, from the peak growth rate of 15% in July to 10.2%.
2. Small and medium-sized companies are growing faster by more than 16%!
From a company's point of view, even if they are all in the same environment, it does not mean that every company has achieved rapid growth in scale.
Previously, when we analyzed the premium income of listed insurance companies in 2023, we mentioned that compared with other small and medium-sized life insurance companies, the growth rate of leading insurance companies is still low.
As can be seen from the chart above, among the listed insurance companies and their subsidiaries, PICC Health, Ping An Health and Sunshine Insurance have a higher growth rate, while none of these 10 insurance companies has a higher growth rate than the industry, and the overall premium growth rate is only 5.16%.
On the other hand, the growth rate of the remaining 80 or so life insurance companies is 16%, which not only surpasses the industry, but also has a large gap with the companies in the past 10 years.
Which companies are growing fast?
As for why the growth rate of the top insurance companies represented by China Life and Ping An will be lower than that of small and medium-sized insurance companies, this may be related to multiple factors.
For example, leading insurers pay more attention to the balance between scale and efficiency, and do not blindly pursue scale, which makes the cost pressure on the liability side too great.
After all, in the face of the continuous volatility of the capital market and the continuous decline of the interest rate center, insurance companies must strengthen asset and liability management to ensure the long-term sound operation of the company.
3
Property and casualty insurers grew by 6.7%
Dragged down by non-auto insurance, the growth rate is lower than in 2022
1. Among the three oldest, CPIC has the fastest growth rate, and the growth rate of small and medium-sized insurance companies is even higher...
Compared with life insurance companies, the gap in premium growth between property insurance companies will be smaller!
As can be seen from the figure above, the growth rate of 7 property insurance companies, including the old three, was 6.45%, slightly lower than the overall growth rate of the property insurance industry.
However, excluding these companies, the remaining 89 property insurance companies grew by 7.7%, outperforming the industry and slightly higher than these seven insurance companies.
Among the three oldest, in addition to Ping An, which was affected by the active contraction of credit insurance business, and the low growth rate of non-auto insurance dragged down the company's overall growth rate, CPIC surpassed the market and PICC was able to keep up with the market.
However, if you only look at the auto insurance business, Ping An is still the fastest growing among the three companies, indicating that its competitive advantage in the auto insurance market is still the same.
In addition, the growth rate of premiums such as China Life Property, Dadi, and Sunshine also outperformed the market, among which Zhongan Insurance had the fastest growth rate of 25%.
2. Non-auto insurance such as agricultural insurance is growing rapidly, health insurance is slowing down, and accident insurance is growing negatively...
In terms of business, the key to dragging down the premium growth rate of the property insurance industry in 2023 is in non-motor insurance, because the growth rate of motor insurance premiums is the same as that of the previous year.
As for the slowdown in the growth rate of non-auto insurance, it is mainly dragged down by health insurance...
First, accident insurance continues to grow negatively, with a growth rate of -11% in 2023, and premium income will decrease by more than 6 billion to 50.9 billion.
Second, the growth rate of health insurance premiums slowed down, falling to 10.9% from 14.6% in the same period in 2022.
Therefore, the three major non-auto insurance businesses of agricultural insurance and health insurance liability insurance only contributed about 3.4% to the growth rate of property insurance companies.
4
Beijing, Shanghai and other places have risen in the ranking of premiums
Life insurance premiums in economically developed regions are growing faster
Finally, in terms of regions, the ranking of the provinces with the largest premiums in 2023 has changed, with Beijing, Sichuan, Shanghai, and Shenzhen rising in the rankings.
In the middle of last year, "13 fine" told you that in the context of the discontinuation of 3.5% pricing products, it does not mean that every practitioner can have good performance.
This is not only related to its own business capabilities and customer resources, but also related to the region.
As can be seen from the chart above, the rise in the premium rankings of Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen is due to the ultra-rapid growth of life insurance business.
Guangdong, Jiangsu, Beijing, Zhejiang, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Fujian and other places will all exceed the growth rate of life insurance business in 2023, and the common denominator of these places is that they are economically developed.
In other words, in the context of the discontinuation of 3.5% pricing products, customers with high demand for savings are high-net-worth customers, which is why large policies continued last year...