Since 2019, the Jiangxi Branch of Chinese Min Property Insurance Company and the Jiangxi Taohongling Sika Deer National Nature Reserve have coordinated the creation of an insurance mechanism for wildlife damage rescue compensation in the reserve. The picture shows insurance companies and protected area staff going to explain the insurance rules to farmers. Photo by Yuan Xin (People's Vision)
The difficulty of settling claims and the slowness of claims have always been the most worrying problems for consumers when buying insurance. The variety of materials and the complexity of the process have made many people prohibit the settlement of claims. Today, as fintech accelerates the empowerment of the insurance industry, claims settlement is becoming simpler and consumer claims experiences are improving. Zhu Huiqingzuo (Xinhua News Agency)
In recent years, Chinese Life insurance cattle raised by farmers in Tianhe County, Guangxi, and quickly created a 3D feature database through the collection of cow facial information to ensure the authenticity and uniqueness of the underwriting target, and greatly simplify the underwriting inspection and claim review process. The picture shows on November 26, in Tianzhi County, Incan Township, the insurance company staff perform facial recognition for cattle and prepare for insurance. Xinhua News Agency reporter Jin Liangkui photographed
Recently, the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission issued the Provisions on the Supervision of Insurance Agents (hereinafter referred to as the Provisions), which has attracted widespread attention.
The so-called "insurance agent" refers to an institution or individual that collects commissions from insurance companies and handles insurance business on behalf of insurance companies within the scope authorized by the insurance company, including insurance professional agencies, insurance concurrently operating agencies and individual insurance agents. The Provisions regulate the insurance sales link from multiple angles, such as straightening out legal relations, uniformly applying rules, improving access and exit management, and improving the insurance intermediary supervision system system.
Insurance agents lead the insured on the one hand, directly affecting their purchase of insurance; on the other hand, they lead the insurance enterprises, which is an important human resource. It is generally believed that the promulgation of the Provisions is conducive to protecting the legitimate rights and interests of policyholders and promoting the sustained and healthy development of the insurance industry.
Buy insurance: Professional services are important
Insurance is both familiar and unfamiliar to ordinary people: familiarity is because there are huge practical needs in life; strangeness lies in the strong professionalism of insurance products and many contract terms. What kind of services the insurance agent provides directly determines the feelings of the insured.
Du Yun, who lives in Shandong, is 50 years old. In recent years, with the increase of age, Du Yun has paid more and more attention to insurance. For the insurance practitioners she has come into contact with, she is a bit of a mixed bag. "I know that insurance people are considered acquaintances, the service attitude is very good, ask anything to give you an answer." However, there are also some practitioners who do not understand the product and the contract themselves, just thinking of letting you buy it first, or deliberately not telling you, what is the problem after buying, they don't care. Du Yun said that some time ago, an old colleague recommended health insurance products, but because the other party did not know the specific exemption range, he did not buy it in the end.
For the shortcomings and pain points in the development of the industry, the Provisions give clear solutions. According to the relevant person in charge of the Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, as of now, there are 1,776 insurance professional agency legal entities, 32,000 insurance concurrently operating agencies, 220,000 outlets, 9 million individual insurance agents, and 3 million insurance intermediary practitioners. The "Provisions" include insurance professional agencies, insurance concurrently operating agencies and individual insurance agents in the same regulations for standardization and adjustment, and establish relatively unified basic regulatory standards and rules.
For example, the Provisions set corresponding penalties for the illegal sale of non-insurance financial products and the operation of Internet insurance business; for the first time put forward the concept of "independent individual insurance agent", clarifying the market development trend and the leading direction of supervision; stipulating the basic conditions for the business access of insurance concurrently operating agencies; adjusting the minimum registered capital of regional insurance professional agencies to 20 million yuan; and including personnel engaged in the sale of insurance products or conducting loss investigation, claims and other business in insurance agencies into management...
Yu Pingkang, a senior expert in the insurance industry and chairman of Kunzhi Asset Management Co., Ltd., told this reporter that the "Provisions" unify the provisions that were originally scattered in different rules and regulations, which is of great significance to the protection of the rights and interests of policyholders and the healthy development of the insurance market.
"In recent years, China's insurance industry has developed rapidly, and the team of insurance intermediaries and insurance agents has continued to grow. The relevant practitioners are uneven, and they have indeed caused some chaos in the process of exhibition. The Provisions effectively cover part-time and full-time, online and offline, institutions and individuals, eliminating the 'gray area' that restricts the healthy development of the industry, reflecting the timely adaptation of the regulatory system to the development and changes of the industry and the continuous improvement of the regulatory level. Yu Pingkang said.
Welcome Rules: Strive to build a good team
How do insurance practitioners view the Provisions?
Tang Xuemei is a personal agent marketer of PICC Property & Casualty Insurance Company in Ningyuan Branch of Hunan Yongzhou City. Since becoming an agent of PICC P&C in 1997, she has been a "veteran" with 23 years of business experience. After the promulgation of the "Regulations", Tang Xuemei studied and studied for the first time. "Frankly, this is the first time I've heard of the concept of 'independent agent.'" The relevant provisions of the independent agent put forward higher requirements for the moral conduct, social credit, academic level, professional knowledge, work experience and business ability of practitioners. At the same time, this also provides a good entrepreneurial opportunity for insurance agents with strong individual sales ability. She said that in the future, she will take the initiative to seek learning opportunities, independently improve her professionalism and comprehensive sales capabilities, strive to keep up with the development and changes of the industry, and continue to transform into "professional and professional" insurance sales talents.
The reporter found in the interview that like Tang Xuemei, practitioners generally believe that the implementation of the new regulations is conducive to their own better business.
Liang Guirong, manager of the Datong Center Branch of PICC Health Shanxi Branch, said that the promulgation of the "Provisions" has raised the access mechanism for insurance business personnel to a certain height. The new rules emphasize that insurance institutions should employ insurance agency practitioners with good character, and at the same time require strengthening pre-job training and follow-up education for individual insurance practitioners, including business knowledge, legal knowledge and professional ethics. All this means that the quality of insurance practitioners and the quality of service will be qualitatively improved, which will have a great role in purifying the insurance market and enhancing the image of the insurance industry.
"I have been in the insurance industry for 25 years, witnessed the changes in the insurance industry, and experienced first-hand the insurance industry from the initial extensive management to the current refined operation. After the promulgation of the "Regulations", the company immediately organized us to seriously study the latest regulatory regulations. I believe that with the implementation of the Provisions, excellent insurance agents will become more and more smooth in their daily work and customer service, and customers will rely more on our agents. This positive cycle will further promote the high-quality development of enterprises. Yu Peng, business director of Ping An Life Beijing Branch, told this reporter.
Yu Peng introduced that Ping An has always attached great importance to the construction of the agent team, and the "Excellent Talent Program" vigorously promoted by Ping An is a good way to practice. Recruiting talents has corresponding screening requirements at many levels such as new people's academic qualifications and abilities, and at the same time gives special resources and training support to help practitioners grow. Yu Peng expects that the Provisions will effectively promote the high-quality development of the insurance industry to meet the growing insurance needs of residents.
"The number of insurance practitioners is huge and the liquidity is strong, and how to do a good job of standardized learning is very important for the implementation of the new regulations." In the future, institutional licensing, personnel certification, and legal compliance will become a distinctive feature of the development of the insurance industry. Yu Pingkang predicted.
Seize business opportunities: standardize development to add benefits
According to the relevant person in charge of the Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, the Provisions will be implemented from January 1, 2021. In the next step, the CBRC will issue a series of supporting documents as soon as possible to further refine the regulatory requirements for insurance agents, prevent and control risks, control chaos, tighten the institutional cage, and maintain a stable and healthy insurance intermediary market order.
Judging from the development of the insurance industry in recent years, the development of norms has put forward higher requirements and brought more opportunities.
The reporter learned from Chinese Life that the company has actively promoted the "one-piece and diversified" development layout in sales management in recent years, accelerated the integration of new formations of individual insurance, strengthened the standardized management of individual insurance production units, and further consolidated the foundation of sales management. As of June 30 this year, Chinese Life has a total sales force of about 1.8 million people, not only the sales force is stable and qualitatively improved, but also the sales management and sales methods are transformed and upgraded with the development of new technologies and new applications.
For example, Chinese Life uses mobile Internet, big data, AI and other technologies to expand new ways of online staff increase, online training, online exhibition and online management, effectively ensuring business development during the epidemic prevention period. In the first half of this year, the online increase in the whole process of personal insurance was launched, and more than 10 million sales personnel were trained by using AI intelligent human-computer dialogue; more than 20.13 million hours of online training of new people; and innovative video live broadcast morning meetings, micro-innovation meetings, cloud innovation meetings and other models, with an average of 2200 live broadcasts per day during the peak period of live broadcasting. For another example, Chinese Life has newly piloted the deployment of new electronic devices such as self-service terminals, intelligent perception, and visual smart screens, launched AI real-time performance broadcasts, and sunk digital services to front-line production units and sales teams, becoming an important foundation for the forward extension of its insurance agency services. Promoting standardization with technology has laid a strong foundation for the counter-trend improvement of Chinese life performance.
Zhou Weidong, director of the basic law team of Ping An Life's sales planning team, told this reporter that Ping An Life is continuing to promote the reform project, implementing the two-wheel drive strategy of "product channels", and promoting the development model of agent channels to "scale and quality" from the three directions of product, channel and data transformation.
"In the future, we will continue to pay attention to the development trend of insurance agent channels after the promulgation of the new regulations, continue to promote the construction of high-quality and professional agent teams, actively explore new models such as independent individual insurance agents, and carry out a diversified channel layout of 'online and offline' integration." In terms of operation and management, we will also make every effort to promote the transformation of life insurance business to data management through technology empowerment. We believe that Ping An Life's current reforms are in line with regulatory requirements and market trends, and are forward-looking in the industry. Zhou Weidong said.