On July 26th, the National Financial Regulatory Administration released the insurance industry's operating status table for the first half of 2024.

According to the published statistical data, from January to June 2024, China's insurance industry achieved a premium income of 3.55 trillion yuan from original insurance.

Breaking it down, property insurance and life insurance sectors contributed 744.2 billion yuan and 2.8 trillion yuan respectively.

During the same period, the insurance industry's original insurance payout expenditure reached 1.23 trillion yuan.

Compared with the same period last year, the industry's total original insurance premium income grew by 4.9% year-on-year, while the payout expenditure increased by 33.1% year-on-year.

Looking at the asset scale, as of the end of June 2024, the total asset scale of the insurance industry reached 33.8 trillion yuan, an increase of 15.74% compared with the same period last year.

At the same time, the industry's net assets were 3.04 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 8.3%.

It is worth noting that both the life insurance and property insurance sectors achieved positive growth in premium income in the first half of the year, with increases of 5.1% and 4.5% respectively.

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After the overall industry data was announced, several listed insurance companies also successively released their semi-annual reports for 2024.

The performance progress of some companies has attracted attention in the secondary market.

Taking China Taiping as an example, after the company released its performance report on August 28th, the stock price rose significantly to 9.82 Hong Kong dollars per share, an increase of more than 14%.

As of the closing on September 2nd, its stock price further rose to 10.48 Hong Kong dollars per share.

In addition, the stock prices of New China Life Insurance and China Pacific Insurance also increased by more than 5% on August 30th.

Among them, New China Life Insurance A-share stock price rose to 33.05 yuan per share, setting a new high in the past three months, and the company's market value once again broke through the 100 billion yuan mark.

The net profit of the five major A-share listed insurance companies was 171.8 billion yuan in the first half of 2024.

The five major A-share listed insurance companies in China's insurance industry - Ping An Insurance, China Life Insurance, People's Insurance Company, China Pacific Insurance, and New China Life Insurance - have all disclosed their semi-annual financial reports.

Overall, the operating conditions of these companies basically met industry expectations and showed signs of recovery.

Financial report data shows that the five insurance companies achieved a net profit of 171.799 billion yuan attributable to the shareholders of the parent company in the first half of 2024, a year-on-year increase of about 12.55%.

The daily profit increased from 741 million yuan in the same period last year to 944 million yuan, reflecting an improvement in the industry's overall profitability.

Specifically, Ping An Insurance topped the list with a net profit of 74.619 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 6.8%.

China Pacific Insurance had the fastest net profit growth rate, reaching 37.1%, with a net profit of 25.132 billion yuan in the first half of the year.

China Life Insurance, People's Insurance Company, and New China Life Insurance achieved net profits of 38.278 billion yuan, 22.687 billion yuan, and 11.083 billion yuan respectively, with year-on-year growth rates of 10.6%, 14.1%, and 11.1% respectively.

In terms of investment income, the five listed insurance companies performed well overall, achieving a total investment income of 337.063 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 33.29%.

Among them, China Life Insurance had the largest increase, with a year-on-year increase of more than 50%, and a total investment income of 122.366 billion yuan.

China Pacific Insurance and New China Life Insurance followed closely, with year-on-year increases of more than 40%, achieving 56.037 billion yuan and 31.613 billion yuan respectively.

Ping An Insurance increased by 23.03% year-on-year, with a total investment income of 97.983 billion yuan.

It is worth noting that People's Insurance Company was the only company to see a decline, with a total investment income of 29.064 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of about 7.7%.

It is worth noting that the "New National Nine Articles" issued by the State Council in April this year had an impact on the dividend policy of insurance companies.

Except for China Pacific Insurance, the other four companies all announced their semi-annual dividend plans, with a total dividend of nearly 27 billion yuan.

In the dividend plan, Ping An Insurance plans to distribute 9.3 yuan (including tax, the same below) per 10 shares, with a total dividend amount of 16.84 billion yuan, accounting for a larger part of the total dividend amount of the four companies.

People's Insurance Company, New China Life Insurance, and China Life Insurance plan to distribute 0.63 yuan, 5.4 yuan, and 2 yuan per 10 shares respectively.

Looking at the dividend ratio, Ping An Insurance's semi-annual dividend rate is about 22%, China Life Insurance and New China Life Insurance are about 15%, and People's Insurance Company is about 12%.

It should be pointed out that China Life Insurance, New China Life Insurance, and People's Insurance Company are the first to implement semi-annual dividends in recent years.

Ping An Insurance's semi-annual dividend scale is the same as last year, and it has not increased with the increase in profits.

New changes after "reporting and operating as one".

In August 2023, the National Financial Regulatory Administration issued the "Notice on Regulating Insurance Products through Bank Agency Channels" to regulate the commission of bank insurance channels.

According to Luo Yanjun, director of the Life Insurance Department of the Financial Regulatory Administration, after the implementation of the "reporting and operating as one" policy, the average commission level of related channels in the whole industry has decreased by 30% compared with before.

Luo Yanjun pointed out that strengthening the "reporting and operating as one" requirements will further regulate market order and is beneficial to the high-quality development of the industry in the long term.

She believes that this policy has two impacts: first, it promotes the commission level to return to a reasonable range, and promotes the industry to reduce costs and increase efficiency; second, it promotes companies to build core competitiveness through products and services, especially small and medium-sized companies to focus more resources on segmented fields, to better meet customer needs and improve service capabilities.

Many top insurance companies mentioned the impact of the "reporting and operating as one" policy on reducing liability costs and improving operating performance in the 2024 semi-annual report.

Wang Lianwen, vice president of New China Life Insurance, said at the performance release conference that New China Life Insurance has benefited from this policy, and the business value of the bank insurance channel has been greatly improved.

He believes that although it may have a certain impact on the business in the short term, it is beneficial to the development of the industry in the long term.

New business value is one of the core indicators of life insurance companies, reflecting the company's operating ability, new business development and sales level, and business growth potential.

Specifically, in the first half of 2024, against the background of the reduction of the preset interest rate and the implementation of the "reporting and operating as one" policy in the bank insurance channel, the liability cost of insurance companies has decreased, and the product term and business structure have also been adjusted.

In the first half of 2024, the new business value of all listed insurance companies has increased.

People's Insurance Company's life insurance increased by 91% year-on-year, China Taiping increased by 84%, New China Life Insurance increased by 58%, Sunshine Insurance increased by 40%, China Pacific Insurance increased by 23%, AIA increased by 25% (with the mainland part increasing by 36%), China Life Insurance increased by 19%, and Ping An Insurance increased by 11%.

These data reflect the progress made by each company in new business development.

The main sales channels of the life insurance industry include individual agent channels and bank insurance channels.

Traditionally, the individual agent channel has become the main source of new business value due to its higher value rate.

In contrast, the bank insurance channel has mainly undertaken the function of increasing premium scale in the past.

It is worth mentioning that the data in the first half of 2024 shows that while some insurance companies are optimizing the structure of bank insurance business, some companies continue to increase their investment in the bank insurance channel and have achieved significant results.

Taking Taiping Life as an example, the company's new business value increased by 83.6% year-on-year in the first half of 2024, with the individual insurance channel increasing by 58.2%, while the bank insurance channel achieved a rapid increase of 299.7%, and the latter's contribution to the new business value accounted for 42%.

At the same time, the company's overall new business value rate has significantly increased by 12.4 percentage points to 24.6% year-on-year.

It is worth noting that the value rate of the bank insurance channel has reached 20%, close to the 27.5% of the individual insurance channel.

The increase in new business value reflects the improvement of the profitability of the insurance company's business end, and also indicates the accumulation of long-term operating value and the potential for continuous growth in future profits.

At present, the implementation of the "reporting and operating as one" policy has had a significant impact on the insurance industry.

Companies are actively adapting to the new regulatory environment and adjusting their business strategies to achieve long-term sustainable development.

The property insurance market is stable and advancing.

In terms of property insurance, the property insurance market in China showed a growth trend in the first half of 2024.

According to statistics, the original insurance premium income of property insurance companies in the first half of the year reached 919.7 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 4.5%; the payout expenditure was 523.8 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 10.2%.

Looking at the structure of insurance types, car insurance is still the dominant force in the property insurance market, with a premium income of 431.1 billion yuan, accounting for 46.87% of the total premium income, a year-on-year increase of 2.77%.

Among other major insurance types, the premium income of health insurance, agricultural insurance, liability insurance, and accident insurance are 147.5 billion yuan, 106.3 billion yuan, 77.1 billion yuan, and 25.9 billion yuan respectively.

Among the "three old" property insurance companies, Taiping Property Insurance achieved a net profit of 4.792 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 18.6%; Ping An Property Insurance net profit reached 9.954 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 7.2%; People's Insurance Company net profit was 17.457 billion yuan, although the amount is the highest, but there was a year-on-year decline, mainly due to the decline in underwriting profits of health insurance, liability insurance, and corporate property insurance.

Looking at the premium income, People's Insurance Company achieved an original insurance premium income of 311.996 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 3.7%; Taiping Property Insurance original insurance premium income was 113.203 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 7.8%, higher than the industry average; Ping An Property Insurance original premium income was 160.41 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 4.0%.

It is worth noting that natural disasters have had a certain impact on the comprehensive cost rate of property insurance companies.

People's Insurance Company's comprehensive cost rate in the first half of the year was 96.8%, an increase of 0.4 percentage points year-on-year, mainly affected by major disasters and other factors.

Yu Ze, president of People's Insurance Company, revealed at the mid-term performance meeting that as of August 29th, the company's gross loss from major disasters reached 9 billion yuan.

Ping An Property Insurance's comprehensive cost rate for car insurance business was 98.1%, an increase of 1.0 percentage point year-on-year, mainly affected by the occurrence of more natural disasters such as rainstorms year-on-year.Additionally, the operational status of non-listed property and casualty insurance companies is also worth paying attention to.

According to incomplete statistics, out of 75 non-listed property and casualty insurance companies, 52 achieved profitability, while 23 incurred losses.

In the first half of the year, the combined net profit of non-listed insurance companies was approximately 5.3 billion yuan, a decline of about 14.5% year-on-year.

Among them, only three companies had a net profit exceeding 500 million yuan, and eight companies had a net profit exceeding 100 million yuan, with the rest of the companies' profits and losses mostly concentrated within 100 million yuan.

Looking at the first half of 2024, China's insurance industry has shown a good development trend.

Looking ahead, the prospects for the development of China's insurance industry remain broad.

With the continuous development of the economy and the strengthening of the public's awareness of insurance, the demand for insurance in areas such as health and retirement is expected to continue to grow.

As an important source of long-term funds, the role of the insurance industry in supporting the development of the real economy and emerging industries will become more prominent.

However, the industry also faces challenges such as intensified market competition and technological innovation.

Insurance companies need to continue to innovate and optimize management to adapt to the constantly changing market environment and achieve sustainable development.