Highlights frequently appear on the liability side of listed insurance companies in the first quarter; the asset side faces temporary pressure

Our Reporter Leng Cuihua

As of April 29, all first-quarter 2026 reports for the five major listed insurance companies on the A-share market have been fully disclosed. Overall, China Life, PICC, China Pacific Insurance, Ping An, and New China Insurance each have operational highlights on the liability side. On the asset side, affected by volatility in the equity markets, some insurers’ investment returns and net profits attributable to shareholders of the parent company face periodic pressure.

Significant Increase in Life Insurance New Business Value

In the first quarter, A-share listed insurers’ underwriting-side business developed steadily, with life insurance new business value increasing sharply year over year, showing outstanding performance.

Specifically, in the first quarter, China Life’s first-year premium income for the first-year term increased significantly by 41.4% year over year. The proportion of first-year premiums for ten-year and above terms in first-year premiums increased by 4.4 percentage points compared with the same period last year, and the business structure continued to be optimized. The share of floating-return business in first-year premiums increased, the rigid cost of new business liabilities further declined year over year, and the effectiveness of business-structure transformation was evident. In the first quarter, new business value grew by 75.5% year over year.

China Ping An Life’s channel comprehensive strength was enhanced, and high-quality development showed in multiple dimensions. The new business value of life and health insurance reached 15.574 billion yuan, up 20.8% year over year; with strong market demand, first-year premiums for new business increased by 45.5% year over year.

China Pacific Insurance’s Taibao Life continues to adhere to the main line of value growth, continuously deepening its transformation. Its main operating performance remained stable with an upward bias. In the first quarter, Taibao Life achieved scale premium income of 116.277 billion yuan, of which new policy first-premium term scale premium income was 18.929 billion yuan, up 41.4% year over year. New business value was 6.372 billion yuan, up 9.6%.

New China Insurance achieved breakthroughs in long-term business: first-year premium income for long-term insurance was 24.5 billion yuan, up 25.6%; and premium income for terms of ten years and above was 1.15 billion yuan, up 113%. Its term-structure was effectively improved, helping the company achieve new business value of 4.7 billion yuan, up 24.7%.

In addition, PICC Life under PICC saw first-year premium income for ten-year and above terms increase by more than 30% year over year, and its new business value increased by 21% year over year.

From the perspective of property insurance business, listed insurers’ property insurance business quality continued to improve, and their combined ratio declined year over year.

Data shows that in the first quarter, PICC Property & Casualty’s main business achieved underwriting profit of 7.2 billion yuan, up 7.5% year over year. The combined ratio was 94.2%, down 0.3 percentage points year over year.

At the same time, Ping An Property & Casualty under Ping An steadily increased its business scale, with ongoing improvements in business quality. It achieved original insurance premium income of 90.951 billion yuan, up 6.8% year over year; the overall combined ratio was 95.8%, improving by 0.8 percentage points year over year. The development of new-energy-vehicle insurance continued to look positive: original insurance premium income increased by 16.1% year over year, and underwriting profitability remained stable.

China Pacific Insurance’s Taibao Property & Casualty anchored itself in the direction of high-quality development, continuously optimized business quality, strengthened risk reduction, deepened technology empowerment, and promoted further improvement in efficiency. It achieved original insurance premium income of 63.028 billion yuan, down 0.3% year over year. Among this, original insurance premium income for auto insurance was 26.871 billion yuan, up 0.1%, with premium scale remaining stable; original insurance premium income for non-auto insurance was 36.157 billion yuan, down 0.5%. The underwriting combined ratio was 96.4%, improving by 1 percentage point year over year.

Net Profit Attributable to the Parent Company: “Two Up, Three Down”

Judging by net profit attributable to shareholders of the parent company, listed insurers showed differentiation in the first quarter, following a “two up, three down” pattern year over year. Due to volatility in the capital markets, the asset side of listed insurers faced periodic pressure.

Specifically, in the first quarter, New China Insurance, facing a highly uncertain external environment, withstood the pressure and achieved an annualized total investment yield of 2.1%; net profit attributable to the parent company was 6.5 billion yuan, up 10.5% year over year. Meanwhile, China Pacific Insurance achieved net profit attributable to the parent company of 10.041 billion yuan in the first quarter, up 4.3% year over year. The other three listed insurance companies’ net profit attributable to the parent company all declined to varying degrees year over year.

China Life stated that in the first quarter, bond market interest rates were at low levels and moved within a narrow range, while the stock market saw increased volatility due to external shocks. Against this backdrop, China Life seized opportunities from the widening long-end tenor spread on the fixed-income investment side, increased its allocation to long-duration bonds, and continued to stabilize its configuration base holdings. Equity investments advanced with a balanced and diversified strategy, dynamically optimizing the portfolio structure and continuously improving investment returns and quality. In the first quarter, the company achieved total investment income of 35.536 billion yuan, and its total investment yield was 2.21%.

However, due to a higher base in the same period of 2025 and short-term fluctuations in the market values of some equity investments, China Life’s net profit attributable to the parent company in the first quarter was 19.505 billion yuan, down year over year. It is worth noting that the operation of life insurance companies has characteristics of being long-term, cyclical, and complex. Short-term financial indicators in a single quarter cannot fully reflect the long-term operating performance of life insurance companies. It is recommended to focus on long-term indicators.

China Pacific Insurance stated that in the first quarter of this year, China’s economy got off to a good start, laying a foundation for high-quality development throughout the year. However, affected by geopolitical conflicts, capital markets saw turbulence and adjustments. China Pacific actively captured investment opportunities arising from interest rate fluctuations in fixed-income assets, strengthened active equity management, and continued to do a good job in allocating equity investment products with undervalued valuations, high dividend yields, and favorable long-term profitability prospects. It advanced diversified allocation strategies, and its investment performance remained resilient. In the first quarter, China Pacific’s net investment income rate on investment assets was 0.7%, down 0.1 percentage points year over year; its total investment yield was 0.8%, down 0.2 percentage points year over year.

PICC stated that in the first quarter, the company achieved net investment income of over 12 billion yuan, up over 3% year over year. At the beginning of the year, it increased allocations to long-duration bonds when interest rates were at relatively high levels and strengthened asset-liability duration-matching management. Due to factors including geopolitical conflicts and market turbulence, the return on equity assets under the new accounting standards experienced periodic pressure. “Since April, capital markets have stabilized and rebounded, and we expect investment income to improve significantly,” PICC said.

(Edited by: Qian Xiaorui)

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