In the past three years, insurance funds have adhered to the functional orientation of "stabilizer", "booster" and "ballast stone" and continued to help the development of the real economy. By the end of June 2022, the balance of insurance funds reached 24.46 trillion yuan, an increase of 40.8% compared with the end of June 2065438+2009. Among them, the bond balance was 9.7 trillion yuan, an increase of 62.1%; The total balance of securities investment funds and stocks was 3.2 trillion yuan, an increase of 45.4%; The balance of bank deposits was 2.6 trillion yuan, an increase of 8.6%.
In the past three years, the ability of insurance funds to serve the real economy has been steadily improved, but at the same time, the industry is also facing some new problems. For example, the integration of insurance funds and industrial capital needs to be strengthened, and there is still room for improvement in service channels and methods. As Cao Deyun, executive vice president and secretary general of China Insurance Asset Management Association, said, insurance funds not only face the inherent requirements of high-quality development of the industry, but also think about how to integrate into the process and development of national strategy, real economy, people's livelihood construction and financial market reform under the new pattern, new environment and new economic background.
Style change:
Shrink indirect financing and expand direct financing.
"For a long time, China's financial market financing has been dominated by indirect financing channels such as bank loans. As an important institutional investor, insurance funds have enriched the supply of funds and optimized the financing structure through direct financing forms such as bonds, stocks, funds and alternative investments. At the same time, they are directly injected into the blood of the real economy and effectively serve the financial market reform. " Cao Deyun said.
"The effective supply of funds in the real economy is growing steadily." On July 2 1, Ye, director of the Policy Research Bureau of China Banking Regulatory Commission, said that China Banking Regulatory Commission has effectively promoted banks and insurance institutions to improve the quality and efficiency of serving the real economy, optimized the arrangement of equity assets of insurance companies, and provided supporting support for direct financing in various ways. By the end of June, the balance of insurance funds had reached 24.46 trillion yuan.
According to the data of China Banking Regulatory Commission, as of the end of June, the balance of insurance funds was 9.7 trillion yuan, accounting for 39.66%. The total balance of securities investment funds and stocks was 3.2 trillion yuan, accounting for13.02%; The balance of bank deposits was 2.6 trillion yuan, accounting for11.69%; Other investments, including long-term equity and alternative investments, were 8.7 1 trillion yuan, accounting for 35.63%.
Compared with three years ago, with the improvement of the scale of insurance funds and the continuous improvement of the application system, many changes have taken place in the way of serving the real economy. A remarkable change is that the role of insurance funds in helping the real economy to directly finance through stocks, bonds, equity and creditor's rights continues to be prominent, while the proportion of indirect financing through bank deposits continues to shrink.
According to the reporter's understanding, as of the end of June this year, the allocation ratio of insurance bonds has increased to 39.7%, 5.2 percentage points higher than three years ago; The allocation ratio of bank deposits is 1 1.7%, which is 3.5 percentage points lower than that of three years ago. In addition, a spokesman for the China Banking Regulatory Commission said in March this year that the proportion of insurance funds invested in bonds, stocks and equity remained at nearly 60%.
In addition to the above changes, in the past three years, some long-term funds have been continuously injected into the "fund pool" of insurance funds. Li Zhenpeng, deputy general manager of Taikang Assets and head of the Infrastructure and Real Estate Investment Center, said, "In recent years, with the expansion of the scope of investors in insurance asset management products, especially the inclusion of long-term funds such as basic pensions, social security funds and enterprise annuities, it will help insurance asset management institutions to better guide long-term funds to connect with the real economy and serve people's livelihood construction."
The path of insurance funds serving the real economy is constantly expanding. Cui Bin, chief investment officer of PICC Assets, said, "The investment scope of insurance funds is expanding day by day, and now it has become the mainstream financial institution with the richest investable assets in China. In terms of varieties, insurance funds cover equity, bonds, alternative equity claims, preferred stocks, perpetual bonds, real estate, derivatives and other categories; From the stage, it spans venture capital enterprises, equity funds, primary markets and secondary markets. "
Among all kinds of investment paths, insurance asset management products have become an important starting point for serving the real economy. "Insurance asset management products have the advantages of clear transaction structure, short investment chain and direct connection with physical projects. At present, insurance financial products such as debt investment plans, equity investment plans and insurance private equity funds have become an important way for insurance funds to play their long-term capital characteristics and serve the national strategy and the real economy. " Cao Deyun said.
The advantages are sufficient:
Actively integrate into the overall situation of economic development
In the past three years, insurance funds have continued to serve major national strategies and support the development of the real economy. At the same time, we will continue to lay out infrastructure such as transportation, municipal administration and water conservancy. , the allocation focus is gradually tilted to major national strategies, strategic emerging industries, "double carbon" and green industries, and regional coordinated development industries.
According to the data of Insurance Asset Management Association, as of the end of last year, the registration (registration) scale of debt investment plans involving new infrastructure in insurance fund entity investment projects reached11402 million yuan, mainly investing in intercity high-speed railways and intercity rail transit, UHV and big data centers; The registered scale of the debt investment plan and equity investment plan supported by insurance funds for strategic emerging industries reached 4179.97 million yuan; The registered scale of insurance funds supporting the development of green industry with debt investment plan, equity investment plan and insurance private equity fund reached 1.06 trillion yuan.
By the end of 20021,the investment scale of China life insurance related fields was 2.7 1 trillion yuan; China Ping An has invested 1.23 trillion yuan of insurance funds into the real economy; China Taibao Assets initiated the establishment of 187 alternative investment products, with the transfer amount exceeding 300 billion yuan, covering municipal, energy, environmental protection, shed reform, water conservancy and other industries.
The relevant person in charge of Everbright Yongming Assets said that China's economy has entered a new stage of high-quality development, and the company's investment model has changed adaptively, giving full play to the advantages of long-term capital investment. First, the proportion of investment assets has changed, the allocation of fixed income assets has declined, and the proportion of equity allocation has increased significantly; Second, in terms of investment covering industries and regions, the company closely tracks the development opportunities of industries supported by national policies under the new situation, and lays out scientific and technological innovation, new infrastructure, manufacturing upgrading and other fields; Third, adhere to the bottom-up incubation strategy in the fields of green finance, "double carbon" investment, technological innovation and upgrading, and "specialized innovation", and issue related asset management products one after another.
The person in charge of life assets also said that in the past three years, the company has invested extensively in transportation, energy, "double carbon" goals, water conservancy, municipal administration, industrial parks, affordable housing and other fields through various forms of assets such as bonds, stocks, bank deposits, insurance debt investment plans, and public offerings of REITs.
Multidimensional wind control:
There have been no major risk events in the past three years.
Insurance funds have made many achievements, but also exposed some risks. For example, in 2020 and 20021year, some insurance companies were deeply dragged down by the credit risk of real estate enterprises. But on the whole, the risk of insurance funds serving the real economy in the past three years is controllable.
In fact, as China's economy enters a new stage of the transformation of old and new kinetic energy, it has become a new proposition that insurance funds must answer to handle the relationship between serving the real economy and preventing risks. Duan, CEO of Taikang Assets, said that in practice, there have been more and more investment challenges in recent years. Among them, the main challenge of equity investment lies in the change of capital market characteristics. On the one hand, the correlation between capital market and macro cycle is weakened; On the other hand, the capital market has obvious structural characteristics, and the market is prone to extreme valuation differentiation, while the investment in emerging industries is more difficult and risky. Fixed-income investment faces three major challenges: first, the central level of interest rate has fallen, and the fluctuation range has narrowed; Second, the credit risk situation is grim; Third, the agreed fixed assets continue to face structural asset shortage.
Faced with many risks, insurance institutions sum up experiences and lessons, and constantly optimize the risk control system.
Cui Bin said that in the process of serving the real economy, we should guard against four major risks: First, we should prevent investment from bringing additional risks to the real economy. The second is accurate support to isolate the credit risk transmission between the real economy. The third is to avoid risk events affecting the main business of insurance. Fourth, strengthen internal control to prevent shareholder encroachment and employee moral hazard.
Judging from the risk prevention strategies of some institutions, the person in charge of Life Assets said that the company has built an internal credit rating system and credit evaluation model, covering all fixed-income asset investments, tracking the negative news of counterparties in real time, analyzing the changes of credit risks from a qualitative and quantitative perspective, and actively preventing potential losses caused by major emergencies or adverse events.
The relevant person in charge of Everbright Yongming Assets said that the company should guard against risks in multiple dimensions: First, continuously optimize the credit risk management system; The second is to strengthen the application of financial technology; Third, at the meso level, strengthen the research on the impact of policy trends on the industry; Fourth, at the micro level, strengthen the analysis of the sustainability, corporate governance and financial stability of the business model.
Eliminate difficult problems:
Effective interaction and integration with the industry
In the past three years, insurance funds have to guard against risks and face new pain points in the process of serving the real economy. The reporter combed the views of many insiders and summarized the five major pain points that the industry is currently facing.
First, insurance institutions are familiar with traditional infrastructure and energy business, but their understanding of new infrastructure, new energy and strategic emerging industries is not deep enough. In addition, in recent years, insurance funds have gradually increased in the field of equity investment, but there is a lack of periodic tests and corresponding experience in the upgrading of science and technology industries and high-end manufacturing industries.
Second, the lack of interaction between insurance funds and industries leads to a certain degree of "barrier lake" phenomenon when insurance funds are directly injected into the real economy. It is difficult to find investment projects that match the long-term investment needs with a large amount of funds, and the efficient interaction and integration between funds and industries has not been formed.
Third, although the duration of the liability side of insurance funds is long, which matches the investment cycle of infrastructure business, the risk tolerance of insurance funds is extremely low due to the constraint of its liability side, and the credit qualification of credit users is highly concerned. There is often a contradiction between shortening the project investment period to control the risk exposure of credit users and extending the project period to meet the cash flow measurement of the underlying projects, that is, the dislocation between credit risk and project construction and operation risk.
Fourth, in the context of declining credit environment, in order to avoid credit risks and hedge the risks of project construction and operation, institutions tend to choose large state-owned enterprises and industry leaders, which has formed a "stampede effect" and "homogeneous competition" to a certain extent, and the competition between peers and other financial institutions such as banks and securities companies has intensified, which is not conducive to protecting investors and using funds accurately and efficiently.
Fifth, short-term investment income and long-term investment income are difficult to balance. The long-term nature of insurance funds determines that it has obvious advantages in serving the real economy and can provide a stable source of funds, but it also has rigid cost constraints, which makes it face short-term assessment pressure. Long-term investment serving the real economy often faces problems such as difficulty in obtaining public information, difficulty in obtaining fair value, and lack of basis for short-term income evaluation.
Industry advice:
Serving the real economy based on the main business
Solving the above pain points requires the joint efforts of insurance institutions, regulatory authorities and industry associations.
Cao Deyun believes that insurance funds should be based on the main business of insurance and actively integrate into the high-quality development of the real economy, including based on basic positioning and participating in competition in the large asset management market; Comply with the development trend and open up industrial integration channels; Develop equity investment and optimize the allocation structure of the whole market; Open up innovative channels and increase the research and application of new business; Improve the rules system, optimize the policy environment of insurance funds, strengthen self-discipline services, and enrich the industry governance system and means.
Based on the investment practice of Taikang Assets, Li Zhenpeng summed up four experiences: First, focus on key industries or fields with development prospects; Second, choose excellent partners for all-round strategic cooperation; Third, emphasize research to create value; Fourth, change ideas and actively transform.
A number of insurance institutions have also made suggestions to regulators and industry associations. The relevant person in charge of life assets suggested: First, combine the importance of alternative asset investment and optimize the solvency supervision index system; The second is to guide insurance funds to optimize the assessment system and increase the weight of long-term assessment; Third, it is suggested that the regulatory authorities build relevant docking platforms to promote in-depth exchanges between insurance funds and entities; Fourth, give more targeted guidance on product innovation.
Some people in insurance institutions believe that the industry can make efforts in the following aspects: First, give play to the important role of insurance management associations, aiming at major construction projects and projects with long construction periods; Second, give certain preferential policies to serve the real economy, build investment funds, and protect people's livelihood; The third is to flexibly handle the asset duration of such projects. For such assets with long term but exercise right in the middle, consider whether managers or investors can judge the duration of assets by themselves; Fourth, the regulatory authorities guide insurance institutions to strengthen cooperation with the development and reform of provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) and financial departments, take the lead in establishing strategic cooperative relations between insurance asset management companies and key enterprises, and build communication platforms for insurance funds and major project builders in various forms such as project promotion meetings and investment fairs.
Further open up the "blocking point" of insurance funds serving the real economy
In the past three years, insurance funds have made remarkable achievements in serving the high-quality development of the real economy. However, in the process of insurance funds continuously serving the real economy, there are also some "blocking points", that is, the demand for insurance funds to serve the real economy continues to grow, but the path to the real economy is narrow, which not only makes insurance funds unable to match suitable assets, but also makes the real economy unable to "quench its thirst".
There are three reasons for the formation of "blocking point":
First, the biggest difference between insurance funds and other funds is that they are only convertible. Rigid cost raises the threshold for insurance funds to serve the real economy and narrows the scope of asset allocation. This also requires that insurance funds should first consider the matching degree between the two ends of assets in the process of serving the real economy.
Second, industry premiums have continued to grow in the past three years, and a large number of expired insurance funds need to be reinvested, which makes it difficult for insurance funds to match "suitable" assets. From the perspective of new premiums, the total new premiums of the insurance industry from 20 19 to 202 1 year exceeded 13 trillion yuan. Judging from the reinvested assets, the average debt duration of China life insurance industry is about 12.67 years, and the gap between assets and liabilities is about 6.28 years. The inevitable result of "long money and short allocation" is the increase of reinvestment pressure.
Third, the new investment risks in the process of transformation and upgrading of old and new industries in China make insurance funds "timid". In previous years, the underlying assets of insurance investment targets were mostly traditional industries and fields such as real estate and infrastructure, with fixed income types, and insurance companies also formed a set of effective gameplay. In the new stage of development, it is difficult to improve the efficiency of serving the real economy if we adhere to the previous investment strategy. Therefore, there is an urgent need for insurance funds to shift their investment focus to new industries and new tracks, but it is difficult to keep up with their investment and research capabilities in the new economic field in the short term.
Based on the above reasons, insurance institutions can further strengthen their ability to serve the real economy from the following dimensions.
First of all, from the perspective of asset-liability matching management, appropriately reduce the cost of the liability side, leaving enough space for insurance funds to serve the real economy. This requires insurance companies to continuously increase the cost profit and loss, reduce the pressure of profit and loss, and improve the underwriting ability of debtors.
Second, continue to temper the ability of investment and research. In this regard, insurance companies should start from four aspects: strengthening the construction of talent team, especially in the field of equity investment; Establish a performance appraisal system suitable for long-term investment and value investment; Strengthen the research in the new economic field and improve the industrial orientation; Strengthen the risk control mechanism.
Furthermore, supervision should continue to be loosened to help insurance funds serve the real economy. Insurance services to the real economy need to comprehensively consider regulatory requirements such as solvency, assets and liabilities, and asset allocation. These regulatory requirements are necessary for risk prevention. However, from the perspective of improving the quality and efficiency of serving the real economy, there is still room for loosening regulatory policies. For example, you can discount the risk factors related to investing in the real economy and improve your solvency.
"The general rule does not hurt, but it hurts if it doesn't work." With the joint efforts of all parties, the "blocking points" of insurance funds serving the real economy will be opened one by one, and the "potential energy" of long funds, large funds and stable funds will be continuously transformed into "kinetic energy" to support the national strategy and serve people's livelihood.
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