The "opening red" effect begins to show, with CPIC and NCI's latest premium announcements achieving steady growth

The premium income of insurance companies continues to grow at a high speed.

On January 20, CPIC released its latest premium income report. The report shows that in the full year of 2025, the two core subsidiaries of CPIC achieved a total original insurance premium income of RMB 461.676 billion, maintaining a steady growth trend overall.

Among them, CPIC Life Insurance accumulated original insurance premium income of RMB 258.115 billion, a year-on-year increase of 8.1%; CPIC Property Insurance accumulated original insurance premium income of RMB 203.561 billion, a year-on-year increase of 0.2%.

Previously, NCI announced its premium income situation for the full year of 2025 on the 14th, reporting a total original insurance premium income of RMB 195.89859 billion, a 15% increase compared to the same period last year, with business development also showing a steady growth trend similar to that of CPIC.

On January 19, there was good news as China Taiping released the first performance forecast for listed insurance companies in 2025. The company stated in the performance forecast that the net profit for 2025 is expected to increase significantly by 215-225% year-on-year, attributing the growth mainly to improved net investment performance and the one-time impact of new tax policies for the insurance industry from the tax authorities.

Overall, insurance institutions entering the year-end and beginning of the year’s "opening red" period are welcoming a relatively perfect conclusion to 2025.

Outstanding Performance in Life Insurance Premiums

According to the announcement, CPIC Life Insurance's annual premium income exceeded RMB 258 billion, with a year-on-year increase of 8.1%, significantly higher than the growth rate of property insurance business, becoming the main driver of the group's premium growth. This level of growth is particularly remarkable against the backdrop of industry pressure, reflecting CPIC's core competitive advantage in the life insurance sector.

At the same time, it is also quite challenging for CPIC Property Insurance to achieve positive growth, especially as the latest annual premium announcement shows that the growth rate has maintained positive growth overall, which is not easy to sustain in an environment of deepening auto insurance fee reforms and intensified market competition.

The previously announced premium income of NCI also verifies the good trend in life insurance, as a state-owned insurance institution with a business scale smaller than CPIC and mainly focused on life insurance, NCI's cumulative original insurance premium income achieved double-digit growth.

Channel Structure Shows Divergence

CPIC's latest premium income announcement also revealed many valuable insights.

From the channel performance perspective, the bancassurance channel performed brilliantly. The announcement shows that CPIC's bancassurance channel premium income reached RMB 56.528 billion, a significant year-on-year increase of 42.0%, making it the fastest-growing business channel.

Further analysis shows that new business in CPIC's bancassurance channel grew by 30.6% year-on-year, while renewal business achieved a high-speed growth of 66.2%, with renewal business accounting for 37.6%, indicating a significant improvement in customer retention rates in the bancassurance channel.

In comparison, the insurance agent channel, which has a massive existing scale, also successfully tackled challenges. Relevant data shows that the premium income from the agent channel was RMB 182.751 billion, a slight year-on-year decrease of 0.7%, remaining basically flat, with particularly noticeable challenges in new business premium payments.

Additionally, other distribution channels showed strong growth. The announcement data indicates that CPIC's group government channel grew by 9.0%, with new business growing by 4.8%. Other channels surged by 154.7%, indicating breakthroughs in the company's expansion of emerging channels

Business Structure Optimization

Focusing on property insurance, Taikang Property Insurance achieved a premium income of 203.561 billion yuan for the whole year, a year-on-year increase of 0.2%, remaining basically stable. In the context of deepening reforms in auto insurance fees and intensified market competition, maintaining stable scale is indeed not easy.

Specifically, the auto insurance business remains resilient, with motor vehicle insurance premium income of 110.511 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 3.0%, accounting for 54.3% of total property insurance premiums, continuing to play a stabilizing role.

The non-auto insurance business faced some pressure, especially with non-motor vehicle insurance premium income of 93.050 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 3.0%, reflecting the fierce competition and other real challenges in the non-auto insurance market.

Significant Scale Effect

It is noteworthy that the Chinese insurance market, on one hand, reflects a huge potential space that is still emerging, while on the other hand, it also demonstrates considerable scale effects.

In the insurance market, large insurance institutions are increasingly able to provide more comprehensive, proper services and competitive service prices, gaining more market share.

The latest published premium income structure of Taikang, Xinhua, and others proves this point