--- title: "8 leading insurance companies' premiums in 2024 will increase by over 5%, Ping An continues to hold the top position in the industry" type: "News" locale: "en" url: "https://longbridge.com/en/news/225764698.md" description: "Several listed insurance companies have submitted their \"report cards\" for 2024. As of January 20, Ping An, PICC Group, China Life, CPIC, NCI, and 8 other companies" datetime: "2025-01-22T01:57:47.000Z" locales: - [zh-CN](https://longbridge.com/zh-CN/news/225764698.md) - [en](https://longbridge.com/en/news/225764698.md) - [zh-HK](https://longbridge.com/zh-HK/news/225764698.md) generator: "portal-rs" --- # 8 leading insurance companies' premiums in 2024 will increase by over 5%, Ping An continues to hold the top position in the industry Several listed insurance companies have already submitted their "report cards" for 2024. As of January 20, eight companies, including Ping An, PICC Group, China Life, CPIC, and NCI, have disclosed their 2024 premium income, totaling 2.96 trillion yuan, with a year-on-year growth rate remaining stable at 5.38%, similar to last year. Among them, Ping An continues to lead with over 850 billion yuan in premium income, becoming the largest and fastest-growing A-share listed insurance company; ZhongAn, on the other hand, leads the A+H markets with a growth rate of 13.37%, which, although slightly lower than the same period last year, remains at an industry-leading level. In terms of segments, the life insurance business of various insurance companies maintained an overall growth of over 5% against the backdrop of declining yields on ten-year government bonds and deposit rates, with a slight increase compared to last year; The growth rate of the property insurance segment is slightly higher than that of life insurance but has decreased compared to last year, likely due to the slowdown in non-farm business growth. Multiple analysts pointed out that with the continuous decline in bank deposit rates, there is strong demand for household savings; coupled with the decline in the guaranteed interest rate for life insurance and reduced costs, insurance companies are expected to continue the growth trend in profits and new business in the future. ## Life Insurance Still Has Room for Growth Overall, the insurance segments of listed insurance companies in 2024 continued the recovery trend. Seven companies, including China Life, Ping An, and CPIC, collectively garnered 1.77 trillion yuan in life insurance premiums, a year-on-year increase of 5.23%. Among the companies, China Life continues to solidify its position as the "big brother," being the only life insurance company with annual premium income exceeding 600 billion yuan; Ping An Life maintained a premium growth rate of over 7%, with its scale surpassing 500 billion yuan for the first time; Sunshine, which is only listed on the H-share market, also performed well, with Sunshine Life reaching 80 billion yuan for the first time, achieving a year-on-year growth rate of 7.85%. The continuous reduction in deposit rates is one of the main reasons for the strong demand for life insurance. Since September 2022, the "big six banks" have undergone five rounds of concentrated reductions in deposit rates. After the 5-year fixed deposit rate fell below the 2% mark in 2024, as of January 20, the rates for 3-year and 5-year deposits at Bank of China, Agricultural Bank of China, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, China Construction Bank, and Bank of Communications were 1.5% and 1.55%, respectively. As a result, although the upper limit of the guaranteed interest rate in the life insurance industry has decreased from 3.5% in 2019 to the current 2.5%, the demand for household insurance has been released in advance amid multiple "stops," and the life insurance industry still maintained a growth rate of over 5%. On the flip side, insurance companies are also falling into a deeper "asset shortage" dilemma. With the decline in fixed income rates and fluctuations in the equity market, there is a serious mismatch between the assets and liabilities of insurance companies, with prominent risks of interest spread losses. Regulatory authorities have had to intervene multiple times this year to impose restrictions on the design and sales processes of insurance products First, lower the guaranteed interest rate and establish a dynamic adjustment mechanism. For example, in August 2024, the Financial Regulatory Administration issued the "Notice on Improving the Pricing Mechanism for Personal Insurance Products," which again adjusted the guaranteed interest rate, lowering the upper limit for ordinary personal insurance rates to 2.5%; At the same time, it clarified the dynamic adjustment mechanism for the guaranteed interest rate, focusing on referencing the current medium- and long-term LPR levels. Second, continue to require "reporting and operation integration" to avoid unreasonable additional costs leading to high sales costs. Third, it is proposed to adjust the experience life table. It is reported that the insurance industry may launch the fourth version of the life table within 2025, adjusting mortality data according to longevity trends. From the changes in premiums this year, the expectations of policy adjustments have caused significant fluctuations in quarterly premiums. For example, after being "suspended" continuously in August and September, Ping An Life and Health Insurance's new single premium growth for the whole year was 8.8%, but it declined by 14.8% year-on-year in the fourth quarter, with the new single month-on-month growth rate turning negative compared to the third quarter; In the second half of the year, China Pacific Life Insurance's new individual insurance premium growth rate was higher than the annual average, which is expected to be related to the high growth of premiums in the third quarter. Analysts expect that, given the ongoing long-term savings demand from customers, related insurance still has room for growth. Xu Yishan, an analyst at Founder Securities, pointed out that with the adjustment of the equity market and the reduction of deposit interest rates, the attractiveness of savings-type insurance such as dividend insurance with "low guaranteed interest rates + floating income" is expected to continue to increase. Sun Ting, an analyst at Soochow Securities, believes that lower guaranteed returns help reduce the liability costs of insurance companies, and floating income can also attract customers. "In addition, with the implementation of the dynamic adjustment mechanism for guaranteed interest rates, the liability costs of insurance companies are expected to continue to optimize." Beyond savings-type products, some analysts also pointed out that after the nationwide implementation of DRG/DIP payment reform in all coordinated areas by the end of 2024, the demand for mid-to-high-end health insurance among residents will also increase. Xu Yishan stated, "Looking ahead to 2025, the guaranteed interest rate may be lowered again, and with the growth of new business value and the advancement of DRG reform, premiums are expected to continue to grow throughout the year." ## Non-auto Growth Rate Decline In terms of property insurance, listed insurance companies overall still maintain growth, but the growth rate has shown a narrowing trend. The "king of property insurance," PICC Property and Casualty, maintains its leading position, achieving premiums of 538.044 billion yuan, with a year-on-year growth rate of 4.31%; ZhongAn continues to lead with a growth rate of 13.37%, although this figure has dropped by 10 percentage points compared to the previous year. One of the main reasons for the overall pressure on the property insurance sector is the decline in the growth rate of auto insurance business, which contributes more than half of the total, leading to pressure on annual performance. The growth rates for Ping An Property Insurance, PICC Property and Casualty, and China Pacific Property Insurance were 4.42%, 4.12%, and 3.7%, respectively, down by 1.82, 1.18, and 1.9 percentage points compared to 2023. Looking at different periods, the growth rate of auto insurance for various insurance companies in the first half of the year was generally lower than in the second half. For example, China Pacific Property Insurance's auto insurance premium growth in the second half of the year was 4.5% year-on-year, but the growth rate in the first half was only 2.8% Analysts pointed out that insurance companies faced pressure on auto insurance premiums in the first half of the year. Firstly, the "reporting and operation integration" policy affected the enthusiasm of sales personnel; secondly, the growth rate of new car sales slowed down, with the year-on-year increase in passenger car sales narrowing by 2.5 percentage points in the first half of the year. However, in the second half of the year, the impact of the "reporting and operation integration" policy diminished, coupled with the "trade-in" and scrapping subsidy policies driving the growth of new car sales, the growth rate of auto insurance for various insurance companies has basically rebounded. Another major reason for the pressure on the growth rate of property insurance is the volatility of non-auto businesses. For example, in the first half of the year, ZhongAn actively reduced its consumer finance business, resulting in an overall shrinkage of performance scale. The company's premium income from the digital life and automotive sectors increased by 27% and 34% year-on-year in the first half of the year; however, the health and consumer finance sectors saw declines of 9.6% and 21.6%, respectively. Among them, the consumer finance sector, which saw a decline of over 20%, mainly provides credit technology services to licensed financial institutions. The specific process involves reaching out to potential borrowers with good credit through internet platform partners, strengthening credit assessments of potential borrowers, and assisting internet financial companies (such as ZhongAn Loan, Ma Shang Consumer Finance, etc.) in managing credit risks. ZhongAn stated that facing the pressure of an uncertain macro environment and industry challenges in the first half of the year, the company actively reduced its business scale to cope with fluctuations in asset quality. As of the end of the first half of the year, ZhongAn's outstanding loans insured in the consumer finance ecosystem amounted to 23.028 billion yuan, a decrease of 15.0% compared to the end of last year. The agricultural insurance business also experienced significant fluctuations. For example, PICC Property and Casualty achieved agricultural insurance revenue of 58.229 billion yuan in 2023, an increase of 11.86%; however, in 2024, it recorded only 54.919 billion yuan in premiums, a year-on-year decline of 5.68%. Industry insiders pointed out that the current pressure on receivable premiums in agricultural insurance may be higher than in other businesses. In some regions where the government is unable to provide subsidies, the proportion of receivable premiums in agricultural insurance may exceed 40% of total premiums; at the same time, insurance companies may make advance payments without collecting premiums, resulting in "negative cash flow" operations. 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