Anchoring a top-tier insurance and financial services group, how will China Pacific Insurance proceed in 2026? | Live coverage of the earnings meeting

“Five-Year Plan for the 15th Five-Year Period” kickoff year—China Taiping Life Insurance Company (China Taiping) charts a new journey with an impressive set of results. In 2025, the Group achieved total operating revenue of 4351.56 billion yuan, up 7.7% year over year. Of this, insurance service revenue was 2889.10 billion yuan, up 3.4% year over year. The Group’s net profit attributable to shareholders was 535.05 billion yuan, up 19.0% year over year.

At the 2025 annual results press conference held on March 27, the Chairman of China Taiping, Fu Fan, said that looking ahead to the “15th Five-Year Period,” China’s insurance industry is in a critical period where strategic opportunities and risk challenges coexist. In particular, as China moves into a low-interest-rate era, the industry’s traditional profit model that relies on the interest-rate spread urgently needs to change. Industry competition is shifting from dividend-driven battles over incremental growth to contests for existing market share, making the transition to high-quality development even more pressing.

“On our new journey, the Group will adhere to making progress while ensuring stability and improving quality and efficiency. We will steadily advance our three major strategies—health-and-longevity care, internationalization, and ‘AI+’—and accelerate the building of a first-class insurance-and-financial-services group with market-leading influence and international competitiveness.” Fu Fan said.

Advancing the life insurance business into a new phase of high-quality development

In 2025, Pacific Life Insurance (Taiping) achieved total premium of 2958.55 billion yuan, up 12.7%. Embedded value reached 4654.79 billion yuan, up 10.2% from the end of the previous year; new business value reached 186.09 billion yuan, up 40.1%; and the new business value margin was 19.8%, up 3.2 percentage points year over year.

By channel, the agency channel achieved total premiums of 2116.06 billion yuan, up 4.5%; the bancassurance channel achieved total premiums of 616.18 billion yuan, up 46.4%. Of these, premiums for new policy initial payments (new business, single-payment and regular payment premiums in the initial period) were 169.56 billion yuan, up 43.2%.

Looking ahead to 2026, Li Jinsong, President of Taiping Life Insurance (Taiping), said that the life insurance industry is moving into a new stage of high-quality development. The agency channel is transitioning from “mass recruitment” tactics to a move toward an elite-oriented model. Guided by regulatory policies such as reforms to personal marketing systems, tiered management of agency representatives, and suitability management, the professional capabilities of the agency force are improving and career development is accelerating. The bancassurance channel is also in a strategic opportunity period: its business structure continues to be optimized, the share of products with floating returns increases, and the proportions of single-premium business and high-value business rise significantly.

“Meanwhile, with strong support from regulators, the competitive environment is becoming more standardized. In particular, the effective implementation of ‘reporting, selling, and underwriting as one’ will drive market competition back to the essence of products and services.” Li Jinsong pointed out. The company will anchor value growth, actively seize opportunities, deepen the transformation and development, and expects new business value for the full year to maintain steady growth.

Focusing on bancassurance business, Li Jinsong said that, at present, the bancassurance business is basically advancing in an orderly manner in accordance with the planned policy of “stabilizing value and optimizing structure,” and that key indicators such as channels, outlets, and the teams are broadly in line with expectations.

As he revealed, the company has already established comprehensive business cooperation relationships with all state-owned large banks. It has deepened a channel operations and management system that is better aligned with the operational mechanisms of state-owned large banks. The share among the six state-owned large banks improved by 3 percentage points year over year. It has also solidified deep cooperation with joint-stock banks. Relying on advantages of Taiping’s agency distribution and product services system and its high-customer-relationship operating system, it promotes more granular management of outlets and teams, and explores integrated development with joint-stock banks.

Stable profitability in the new energy passenger car insurance business

In 2025, Pacific Property Insurance (Taiping) achieved original insurance premium income of 2014.99 billion yuan, up 0.1%, and insurance service revenue of 1971.91 billion yuan, up 3.0%. It achieved underwriting profit of 48.36 billion yuan, up 81.0%.

On benefit-related indicators, in 2025 Pacific Property Insurance (Taiping)’s combined ratio for underwriting was 97.5%, down 1.1 percentage points year over year. Of this, the combined loss ratio for underwriting was 70.4%, down 0.4 percentage points; the combined expense ratio for underwriting was 27.1%, down 0.7 percentage points.

Regarding the new energy vehicle insurance business that has attracted market attention, in 2025 Pacific Property Insurance (Taiping) achieved original insurance premium income of 250.17 billion yuan from new energy vehicle insurance, accounting for 22.6% of auto insurance premiums. The combined underwriting ratio for auto insurance was 95.6%, down 2.6 percentage points year over year. Underwriting profit levels reached the best in recent years.

In response, Chen Hui, General Manager of Pacific Property Insurance (Taiping), said that in 2025, the premium growth rate of new energy vehicle insurance was higher than the overall growth rate of auto insurance. This is attributable to the company’s overall strategic layout in the new energy sector in the earlier stage. The company significantly improved the business cost of new energy vehicle insurance through dedicated operations of automaker brands, technology-enabled claims cost reduction, and further strengthening of the service system. “At present, the new energy passenger car business has already entered a stable profitable range.”

Discussing future operating conditions, Chen Hui said that the company will further optimize costs and improve efficiency by building an ecosystem across the full lifecycle. It will focus on two areas: on the one hand, improving operational efficiency; on the other hand, strengthening management in the claims process. The company will conduct centralized loss assessment by brand and export relevant claims standards such as large-battery repairs and water-flooded-vehicle claims to original equipment manufacturers.

In non-auto insurance, in 2025 Pacific Property Insurance (Taiping) achieved original insurance premium income of 909.88 billion yuan, down 3.1% year over year. Its overall combined underwriting ratio was 99.9%, up 0.8 percentage points year over year. After excluding the impact of personal credit guarantee insurance business, the combined underwriting ratio for non-auto insurance was 97.0%, down 2.1 percentage points year over year. Among the main lines of non-auto insurance, health insurance and corporate property insurance achieved a turnaround to profitability.

Chen Hui said that in early 2025, Pacific Property Insurance (Taiping) proactively adjusted its personal credit guarantee insurance business, and it should be said to have been “very resolute.” It is expected that by the end of 2026, all related risks of personal credit guarantee insurance will be fully cleared. This will have a very small impact on the overall cost of non-auto insurance in 2026 as well and will not create adverse effects on the company’s overall operations.

Add equity asset allocation in a timely manner

In 2025, China Taiping achieved operating profit attributable to shareholders of 365.23 billion yuan, up 6.1% year over year. When asked about the comparatively “mild” growth rate versus some peers, Su Gang, Vice President, Chief Investment Officer, and Chief Financial Officer of China Taiping, responded that it is advisable to look at the insurance group’s operating performance over a longer period, which would be more complete and comprehensive. “Over the long term, under China Taiping’s dual-engine model driven by both insurance and investment, it can maintain relatively sound financial stability across different cycles.”

Su Gang said that currently, market interest rates are fluctuating. The structure of traditional businesses such as dividend-like products is diverging. Maintaining continuous stable growth in the marginal balance of contract services will face certain challenges. However, the entire industry is also moving toward high-quality development. Under policy guidance such as “reporting, selling, and underwriting as one” in the insurance industry, dynamic adjustments to the assumed interest rate, and comprehensive governance in non-auto insurance, the industry’s profitability will ultimately improve overall.

“Management will continue to focus on the creation of medium- and long-term value. With annual performance growth as the core goal, we will steadily enhance our profitability and market competitiveness, and maintain the stability of operating profit growth.” Su Gang said.

From an investment perspective, in 2025 the proportion of equity-type financial assets of China Taiping was 16.7%, up 2.2 percentage points from the end of the previous year. Regarding the issue that the proportion of equity investments is lower than that of peers, Su Gang said that the difference in equity investment proportion reflects the company’s asset allocation strategy, which allows the company to have stronger capabilities for controlling drawdowns.

“In a low-interest-rate environment, within our risk tolerance level, the company will increase equity asset allocation in a timely manner, while also actively seizing structural opportunities in the market.” Su Gang emphasized that China Taiping’s core dividend-value strategy, which it has adhered to for the long term, is notably robust and sustainable. This strategy also focuses on listed companies with stronger dividend-distribution capabilities and stable growth prospects, and uses such high-quality assets as the core of its strategic holdings. This enables the company to obtain dividend income in the form of cash flows, improve net investment yield, and also share capital returns driven by stable performance growth, thereby strengthening the overall anti-drawdown level of the equity investment portfolio. At the same time, the company will build a more comprehensive satellite strategy system covering multiple key areas such as technological innovation, healthy living for the aging population, and big consumption.

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