Profit increases by 22.4%, with the five largest listed insurance companies in A-shares showing steady growth in performance

So far, the five largest A-share insurers’ 2025 annual performance results have all been disclosed. On March 29, according to statistics compiled by Beijing Business Today reporter, China Ping An, China Life, China Property & Casualty Insurance, China Taiping, and New China Life Insurance—five A-share listed insurance companies—collectively generated attributable net profit of RMB 425.29B in 2025, up 22.4% year on year.

The sharp surge in net profit is inseparable from contributions on the investment side. Benefiting from the stock market performance in 2025, the listed insurers’ investment returns generally performed well. In their annual reports, multiple insurers stated that they increased investments in high-dividend-yield assets. From the underwriting side, thanks to marginal improvements in the claims side and expense control, the “old three” non-life insurers’ business costs were all optimized. Meanwhile, against the backdrop of a low interest-rate environment and sluggish competitor wealth-management products, the growth in the value of new life insurance business was clearly strong. Looking ahead, can non-life insurance business costs continue to stay low, and can life insurance maintain its glory? Everything needs to be tested by time.

Investment drives net profit growth

In 2025, all five listed insurers achieved impressive year-on-year growth. Net profit attributable to shareholders of the parent company all showed an upward trend, with total attributable net profit reaching RMB 425.29B, up 22.4% year on year.

As the first A-share insurer to release its results, China Life achieved attributable net profit of RMB 154.08B. On top of a high base, it continued to grow steadily, up 44.09%. China Ping An’s profit scale followed closely behind; in 2025 it recorded net profit of RMB 134.78B, up 6.5%. In addition, China Taiping, China Property & Casualty Insurance, and New China Life Insurance achieved net profit of RMB 53.51B, RMB 46.65B, and RMB 36.28B, respectively, with growth rates of 19%, 8.8%, and 38.3%.

A closer look at this impressive set of results shows that performance on the investment side has become the core engine driving the substantial increase in net profit. The rebound in China’s capital markets in 2025 provided insurers with a rare window for generating profits. Multiple insurers precisely captured market pulse and achieved breakthrough growth in investment returns. For example, China Life realized what is among the best investment performance in recent years last year, with total investment income reaching RMB 387.69B, up 25.8% year on year, and total investment yield of 6.09%. New China Life Insurance’s total investment income for the full year last year was RMB 104.33B, with growth of 30.9%. China Property & Casualty Insurance’s total investment income was RMB 92.32B, setting a historical high.

However, behind the investment-side growth there are also hidden concerns. How to balance the relationship between returns brought by short-term market volatility and long-term steady growth? How to respond to the low interest-rate environment is an important issue that all major insurers must face directly. Fu Yifu, a special research fellow at SuShang Bank, predicted that in 2026 the stock market is expected to see a structural trend. Benefiting from policy support and the economy’s transformation, sectors that may perform well could do so, but investors should pay attention to the bond market’s interest-rate trend and differentiation of credit risk.

How will future listed insurers respond to the low interest-rate environment on the investment side? At the company’s results briefing, Guo Xiaotao, Co-CEO of China Ping An, said the company’s investment approach is to find certainty amid uncertainty. New quality productive forces are a certainty factor. Strong development of infrastructure is a certainty factor. The development of the entire national economy is a certainty factor. High-dividend yield and a strong financial country are certainty factors. Healthy China is also a certainty factor. All of these are important directions for long-term investment asset allocation.

Regarding specific allocation strategies, Liu Hui, Vice President and Secretary to the Board of China Life, said that in a low interest-rate environment, the company will further strengthen strategic allocation and active management; asset-liability matching will be continuously optimized; and the fixed-income “core holdings” will keep being solidly strengthened. In addition, the company will fully leverage the advantages of long-term capital and patient capital, increase product innovation and strategy innovation, and build an alternative investment ecosystem across all product types and across the entire lifecycle. The overall scale of alternative investments exceeds RMB 1 trillion, opening up room for long-term growth.

Life insurance new business value grows strongly

As the “barometer” for measuring insurers’ future profitability and business quality, new business value has long been the focus of market attention. In 2025, the life insurance new business value of the five A-share listed insurers all achieved double-digit positive growth.

In terms of scale, China Life also leads. In 2025, its one-year new business value reached RMB 45.75B, up 35.7% year on year. Closely following is China Ping An, whose life and health insurance new business value was RMB 36.9B, with growth also reaching 29.3%.

In terms of growth drivers, companies all showed impressive performance. China Taiping’s life insurance new business value was RMB 18.61B, up 40.1%. New China Life Insurance recorded new business value of RMB 9.84B, with growth as high as 57.4%. China Property & Casualty Insurance’s life insurance achieved new business value of RMB 8.23B last year; under comparable terms, its year-on-year growth rate was 64.5%, the highest among the five companies.

Behind the impressive performance is strong empowerment from two major channels: insurance agents and bancassurance. Beijing Business Today reporter learned that major companies are pushing “optimize personnel and improve quality” in individual insurance channels, moving toward an elite and professional direction. Meanwhile, under policy guidance of “reporting and selling in line” in bancassurance channels, companies are gradually entering a “value bancassurance” new stage. Fu Yifu further analyzed that the growth in life insurance new business value of listed insurers in 2025 mainly benefited from two factors: first, insurance demand continued to be released, and residents’ awareness of health and pension protection increased; second, insurers actively promoted channel transformation—improving the quality of individual insurance teams—and diversified channels such as bancassurance contributed to the growth.

As the industry’s leading company, at the company’s results briefing, Li Mingguang, President of China Life, provided a detailed breakdown of the company’s “winning formula.” He said that among various sales channels, the individual insurance channel gives full play to its role as the main channel, and the company’s ability for sustainable development is solid. At the same time, the individual insurance channel continues to advance marketing system reform steadily, adhering to improving both quality and volume, strengthening “better additions,” optimizing team structure, continuously enhancing the team’s hard strength, and accelerating the team’s transformation toward professionalism, specialization, and youthfulness. As the team’s quality keeps improving and new talent keeps growing, incremental headcount increased by 40% year on year, the 13-month retention rate improved by 2.2 percentage points year on year, and the proportion of people aged 45 and below improved by 2.3 percentage points year on year. The bancassurance channel continues to adhere to a comprehensive layout, expanding and improving the quality of branch operations; new business issuing outlets and star outlets both achieved double-digit growth.

China Ping An, meanwhile, offered another way of solving the problem, emphasizing the power of “balance” to deal with market volatility. Guo Xiaotao mentioned that the company has life insurance agents, bancassurance channels, and community finance channels. Among them, the agents’ team combat strength is getting stronger, enabling the company to achieve continuous performance development more effectively in market competition; the bancassurance channel can capture growth opportunities in the market; and the company is now also actively cultivating the community finance channel. Such a balanced channel structure allows the company to effectively resist the impact that market volatility may have on performance when the market fluctuates.

Add incremental growth from new energy vehicle insurance into non-auto insurance

Unlike the rapid expansion of life insurance business, the non-life insurance market has entered a track of steady development. The “old three” leaders in the market—China Property & Casualty Insurance, Ping An Property & Casualty, and China Taiping Property & Casualty—continued to optimize their business structure last year, compressing business costs.

Specifically, in 2025, the combined ratio of the three major non-life insurance giants—China Property & Casualty Insurance, Ping An Property & Casualty, and China Taiping Property & Casualty—was reduced to 97.6%, 96.8%, and 97.5%, respectively, improving by 0.9, 1.5, and 1.1 percentage points year on year. Improvements in cost control directly translated into stronger growth in underwriting profit. In industry views, the “old three’s” optimization of business costs benefits both from insurers’ refined expense management—strengthening channel cost control and cutting unnecessary expenditures—and from fewer large-scale disasters, which reduces claim expenses. According to data from the Ministry of Emergency Management, in 2025 natural disasters of all types in China caused direct economic losses of RMB 241.62B, down 39.8% year on year.

At present, the combined ratios of the three non-life insurers are already at relatively low levels. In the future, where is the room to further reduce costs?

Bai Wenxi, Deputy Chairperson of the China Enterprise Capital Alliance, predicted that first, it is new energy vehicle insurance. Currently, the combined ratio of the industry’s new energy vehicle insurance is higher than that of fuel vehicle insurance. In the future, as the market-oriented pricing coefficient for auto insurance becomes more mature and pure-risk premium data improves, in 2026 the cost ratio of new energy vehicle insurance is expected to further improve. Second, it is non-auto insurance. Non-life insurers can shift the traditional “loss compensation” toward “risk prevention” by providing risk reduction services. They can reduce the claim frequency by using the Internet of Things and big data, while also optimizing their business mix to reduce high-claims business and expand stable businesses such as government-backed and agricultural insurance.

Based on statements by executives at different insurers, the industry in the future will also look for additional profit growth from businesses such as new energy vehicle insurance and non-auto insurance. At the China Property & Casualty Insurance results briefing, Zhang Daoming, acting head of China Property & Casualty Insurance, said that after “reporting and selling in line” in non-auto insurance, the comprehensive governance effectiveness of non-auto insurance in 2026 is expected to be reflected first in the comprehensive expense ratios of enterprise property insurance, employer liability insurance, and safety production liability insurance. The comprehensive expense ratios of the above insurance types are expected to decline by more than two percentage points year on year. It is expected that the combined ratio of non-auto insurance will drop, achieving underwriting profitability.

Chen Hui, General Manager of China Taiping Property & Casualty, said that the home-vehicle new energy business has already entered a stable profit range. China Taiping Property & Casualty will further optimize costs and improve efficiency by building an ecosystem across the entire lifecycle. The focus is on two areas. One is improving operational efficiency. The other is management in the claims process. Claims will be handled according to brand concentration, and relevant claims standards—including standards for repairing large batteries and for claims related to water-flooded cars—will be provided to original equipment manufacturers.

Beijing Business Today reporter Li Xiumei

(Editor: Qian Xiaorui)

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