Chinese regulator defines new insurer rules

The China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC) has created new standards in the country's personal accident insurance sector.

Insurers have been ordered to restrain their branches and agents from illegal actions via uniform coding mechanisms on personal accident insurance policies, establish connections among policy providing systems, policy management systems and core business systems, as well as enhance management on financial affairs.

The CIRC has also emphasised that insurance firms also have the responsibility to require their agents to sell valued polices of personal accident insurance in line with face premiums.

The CIRC had previously found many problems in this sector, such as random prices, unauthentic operating data, lack of control over distribution networks, incomplete information systems, and false polices.

In other news, the total assets of China's insurance industry dropped 4% to 3.68trn yuan in August from July's 3.8trn yuan, according to data released by the CIRC.

The industry's investments were worth a total of 2.34 trillion yuan as of the end of August, down 4.35% from 2.44trn yuan in July, breaking up the five consecutive positive growth rates kept from March this year.