A "No. 1 ticket" has sparked heated discussions in the industry and media attention. On April 24, 2024, Zhongan Online Property Insurance Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Zhongan Insurance") received the "No. 1 fine" from the State Administration of Financial Supervision and Administration (hereinafter referred to as the "State Administration of Financial Regulation") (for details, see: ""No. 1 Fine" Smashes into the "New Species" of Insurance, Zhongan Insurance, What Signal Is Released?). has attracted much attention.
Is Zhongan Insurance the monthly "king of fines" in the insurance industry? Did the compliance of the insurance industry continue the good trend in the first quarter? Which insurance company "eats" the most fines?
According to the statistical analysis of Southern Weekly's "Shepherd Dog - China Financial Industry Compliance Cloud Platform" (hereinafter referred to as the "Shepherd Dog Platform"), Zhongan Insurance has the largest single fine, but the total amount of fines and confiscations only ranks fourth in the month. The number of fines and fines in the insurance industry as a whole increased sharply again from the previous month.
Chinese People's Insurance Group Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Chinese Insurance") and its subsidiaries received the largest number of fines, not only the monthly "king of fines", but also the "champion of fines". In fact, in the fourth quarter of 2023 and the first quarter of 2024, Chinese People's Insurance is the "king of fines".
What is more noteworthy is that the chaos of expense management is still stubborn.
The compliance situation reversed, and the fines doubled
Contrary to the sharp decline in the number of fines and fines in the insurance industry in the first quarter, the compliance of the insurance industry is improving.
According to the statistical analysis of the Shepherd Dog Platform database, the Southern Weekend New Financial Research Center found that in April, the People's Bank of China, the State Administration of Financial Supervision and Administration, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (hereinafter referred to as "one bank and two bureaus") and the three local dispatched agencies issued insurance industry penalty information and forfeiture amounts increased sharply again, with 304 penalty information and fines of about 26.08 million yuan, respectively, an increase of about 95% and 115% month-on-month. Both the number of fines and fines basically doubled month-on-month.
Insurance institutions and individual insurance practitioners, which is more severely punished?
The Southern Weekend New Finance Research Center further divided the fines into two dimensions: insurance institutions and insurance industry practitioners, and found that there were 127 pieces of penalty information for insurance institutions, with nearly 21.32 million yuan in fines and confiscations, an increase of about 84% and 114% respectively from the previous month.
Similar to insurance institutions, the amount of fines and forfeitures for individual employees in the insurance industry also increased year-on-year. According to the data of the shepherd dog platform, there are 177 pieces of personal penalty information in the insurance industry, and the amount of fines and confiscations is about 4.76 million yuan, an increase of about 103% and 124% respectively from the previous month.
This shows that both insurance institutions and individual practitioners have been punished more seriously.
The largest fines were all transferred to the property and casualty insurance industry
What are the differences in the compliance performance of different insurance segments?
According to a study by the New Finance Research Center of Southern Weekly, property and casualty insurance companies, life insurance companies and insurance intermediaries are still the focus of regulatory attention from the perspective of institutional penalties. The number of fines and the amount of fines confiscated by the three increased month-on-month. The penalty information and forfeiture amount of property insurance companies were 54 and 11.92 million yuan, respectively, an increase of 54% and 113% month-on-month; The penalty information and forfeiture amount of life insurance companies were 48 and 6.461 million yuan, respectively, an increase of 100% and 133% month-on-month; The penalty information and forfeiture amount of insurance intermediaries were 19 and 1.92 million yuan respectively, an increase of 138% and 36% respectively from the previous month.
From the perspective of individual fines, the largest institutional fines and the largest individual fines in April pointed to the property insurance industry at the same time. In the fourth quarter of 2023 and the first quarter of 2024, the largest fines were directed at the life insurance industry. (For details, see: "Under the heavy blow of "integration of newspapers and banks", the chaos of expense management in the insurance industry has surfaced|Financial Compliance List)
According to the data of the Shepherd Dog Platform, in April, Zhongan Online Property Insurance Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Zhongan Insurance") received the "No. 1 fine" from the State Administration of Financial Regulatory Commission, with a fine of 1.8 million yuan. The reason for Zhongan Insurance's fines is not new, and it still points to the stubborn disease of "big and small accounts" in the insurance industry. This seems to mean that the era of "wild growth" of Internet insurance has passed. (See: ""No. 1 Fine" Smashes into the Insurance "New Species" Zhongan Insurance, What Signal Is Released?) 》）
The Chinese are "secure" the king of fines
Which agency received the most fines? Who is the institution with the highest total fines?
According to the statistical analysis of the data of the Shepherd Dog Platform, the New Financial Research Center of Southern Weekend found that the branches of Chinese Insurance and its affiliated institutions received the largest number of fines, with 15, making them the "king of fines" this month. In fact, in the fourth quarter of 2023 and the first quarter of 2024, Chinese People's Insurance is the "king of fines".
From the perspective of the amount of fines and confiscations, Chinese Insurance is the monthly "fine champion", with a cumulative fine of about 2.98 million yuan in the month. Although Zhongan Insurance received the "No. 1 fine" in terms of individual fines, its cumulative amount only ranked fourth, behind Chinese Insurance Group, Taikang Insurance Group Co., Ltd. and China United Insurance Group Co., Ltd.
Southern Weekend New Finance Research Center believes that Chinese Insurance has repeatedly ranked first in the compliance list, and although there are factors such as large scale and diversified business, its compliance awareness needs to be strengthened.
Henan is the first in terms of fines
Which regions have more serious insurance violations? What are the differences between institutional and individual penalties?
From the perspective of institutional penalties, the violation of the insurance industry in Henan Province has not improved significantly, ranking first in both the list of fines and fines.
According to the statistics of the sheepdog platform, there were 19 pieces of punishment information in Henan Province that month, and the amount of fines and confiscations was about 3.98 million yuan. It is worth noting that in March, the sheepdog platform did not include the information on the fines of the insurance industry in Henan Province. However, judging from the data of the first quarter of 2024, the amount of fines and confiscations in Henan Province in the first quarter ranked first among all provinces. The compliance of the insurance industry in Henan Province still needs to be improved. (For details, see: "Under the heavy blow of "integration of newspapers and banks", the chaos of expense management in the insurance industry has surfaced|Financial Compliance List)
In addition, since Zhongan Insurance is punished by the State Administration of Financial Supervision and Administration (hereinafter referred to as the "State Administration of Financial Regulatory Administration"), it is not included in this regional statistics.
There is overlap between the regions and institutions with the highest number of individual fines and fines. The top three individuals in terms of fines were Henan Province, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region and Qinghai Province. The top three fines were imposed on Henan Province, Qinghai Province and Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.
Whether it is an institution or an individual, the number of fines or fines, the insurance industry in Henan Province is the first.
Both were banned for life
What violations are still frequent? What are the new phenomena?
According to the reasons for the punishment of the Shepherd Dog Platform Data and Statistics Agency, the Southern Weekend New Finance Research Center found that "giving benefits other than those agreed in the insurance contract", "failing to use approved or filed insurance terms and insurance rates in accordance with regulations", "fictitious business arbitrage fees" and "preparing false materials" were among the top four violations.
Among them, 19% of the cases were "giving unexpected benefits as agreed in the insurance contract", 17% were "failing to use the approved or filed insurance terms and insurance rates in accordance with the regulations", and 12% were "fictitious business arbitrage expenses" and "preparing false materials". The four items together accounted for 60%.
According to researchers at the New Finance Research Center of Southern Weekly, most of the above violations point to off-the-books payment fees and the "integration of reporting and banking" of insurance companies. Combined with the industry's penalty information and Zhong'an Insurance's "No. 1 fine", the "integration of reporting and banking" in the property insurance industry is increasing.
In fact, supervision does have a two-pronged approach in terms of positive guidance and strict supervision. On April 15, the Insurance Association of China held a national auto insurance work conference to once again strengthen the "integration of reporting and banking" of auto insurance.
In the property and casualty insurance industry, the integration of newspapers and banks has always been a key area of supervision, especially in the motor insurance business. As early as 2018, the "integration of newspapers and banks" was launched in the property insurance industry. In June 2018, the former China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (CBIRC) issued the Notice on the Relevant Requirements for the Supervision of Commercial Auto Insurance Rates (CBIRC Ban Fa [2018] No. 57, hereinafter referred to as "Circular 57"). Article 4 of Circular No. 57 clearly stipulates that each property insurance company shall submit the scope of value and usage rules of the handling fee. Handling fees are all fees paid to insurance intermediaries and individual agents (marketers), including handling fees, service fees, promotion fees, salaries, performance, bonuses, commissions, etc. Among them, the value range and usage rules of the new car business fee should be listed separately.
After a lapse of nearly 6 years, the "integration of newspapers and banks" in the property and casualty insurance industry is still full of chaos. This shows that it is difficult to treat.
It is worth noting that two insurance practitioners were banned for life. Chinese People's Property Insurance Co., Ltd. and Shuozhi Company were suspended from accepting new agricultural insurance business for one year for false underwriting claims, and Li Wanyong was also banned from working in the insurance industry for life. Song Yongjun, Shanxi branch of Taikang Life Insurance Co., Ltd., was also sentenced to a lifetime ban on working in the insurance industry for deceiving policyholders.
This reflects the heavy pressure and severe punishment of the regulator on insurance fraud and compensation fraud.
Zhang Wenjing, a researcher at the New Finance Research Center of Southern Weekly
Editor-in-charge: Fengyu