China To Boost Insurance Market With Investments
China has revealed their plan to boost the country's insurance industry by relaxing the current controls and restrictions on overseas stock and bond investments for domestic Chinese insurers. The country's investments have been restricted to Hong Kong up until now. The Chinese insurance regulator is letting insurers invest the markets of 45 different countries and regions worldwide.
The change may take some funding away from China but the move is not negative as a whole. Hong Kong's growth enterprise market will now be open to all Chinese insurance funds instead of being restricted to the stock investments on the main board.
The insurance regulator also stated that insurance funds will be able to purchase company bonds with at least a BBB- credit rating in comparison to the previous requirement of BBB - these new rules have been in effect since yesterday. Chinese insurance companies have been slowly increasing their offshore investments recently according to the regulator. A spokesman said: "Outstanding insurance funds invested offshore stood at 23.96 billion yuan as of the end of 2014, up 147% from the end of 2012."
James Savery, 01 April 2015