In recent years, the policy on the use of insurance funds has changed greatly, and the proportion of supervision, the field of investment and the way of supervision are all more suitable for the development of the market. Such an institutional revolution has formed a beautiful landscape for the supervision of the use of insurance funds. Insurance companies should use jiegou to look at the new policy of insurance fund utilization and build a multi-level asset allocation system, which will be beneficial to the stability and optimization of insurance investment structure.
At present, the competition in China's insurance market is fierce, resulting in excess underwriting capacity and declining underwriting profit. To this end, the insurer turned to pay attention to gain income from the use of insurance funds and strive for investment profits. As a result of the use of insurance funds, the insurer obtains an average profit, and the insured also enjoys the benefits of the use of insurance funds at a low rate. The security and liquidity of investment are the basis for the profitability of capital utilization. Steady use of funds should first ensure the safety and liquidity of funds, and on this basis, strive to pursue the profitability of capital use.
the new policy of insurance capital gives insurance companies more investment autonomy
since p>212, the regulatory authorities have continuously promoted the market-oriented reform of the use of insurance funds and promulgated a series of new policies on the use of insurance funds, which has loosened the use of insurance funds and given insurance companies more investment autonomy. The introduction of the new insurance investment policy has greatly broadened the channels for the use of insurance funds, which is of great significance for changing the profit model of insurance companies and improving the income from the use of insurance funds.
the new insurance policy expands the investment scope of fixed-income securities: further expand the investment scope of bonds, especially credit products, allow insurance companies to invest in credit asset-backed securities and innovative fixed-income products, and relax the proportion of credit products. The new policy of insurance capital simplifies the process of infrastructure approval: in the past, insurance companies had to report to the China Insurance Regulatory Commission for infrastructure investment, which was not so much a report, but an approval system in essence. It was not uncommon that it took one year from the report to the approval. In the past, it was not just a process problem. There were many specific indicators for infrastructure. To make a debt plan for enterprises, there were very strict restrictions on the operating indicators of debt repayment subjects, and there were also many restrictions on guarantees. If the creditor's rights plan needs commercial bank guarantee, the guarantee subject is required to be a national joint-stock listed bank.
after the introduction of the new deal, the guarantee methods are more diversified. Relaxing the scope of equity investment: Originally, the equity investment of insurance companies in unlisted companies was limited to three industries. After the introduction of the New Deal, the requirements for insurance companies to invest in PE were relaxed, which increased the proportion of insurance companies that could invest, and increased the investment in energy, resources, modern agriculture and new trade and circulation industries. On the surface, PE investment by insurance companies is now limited to seven industries, but in fact, the industry division of the CIRC does not belong to the standard industry division, and many industries can be attributed to energy, resources, modern agriculture, finance, automobiles, medical care, etc., so it covers almost all industries. Opening up investment in financial products: opening up investment in financial products such as wealth management products of commercial banks, credit asset-backed securities, collective fund trust plans, special asset management plans of brokers, real estate investment plans, etc. The CIRC stipulates that trust products can only be collective trusts, not single trusts, and must be purchased by other buyers besides insurance companies. However, this problem is not difficult to solve. Insurance companies can sell 1 million of the 1 billion trust plans to avoid single trust restrictions, so collective trust makes the investment scope of insurance companies very broad. Provide risk hedging tools: insurance companies can participate in financial derivatives and stock index futures trading, hedge risk positions and reduce portfolio risk.
Now it is mainly divided into three parts. The first part is interest rate swap, which changes floating income products into fixed income products. The second part is exchange rate swap, which is in great demand by domestic insurance companies. This is because almost all liabilities of insurance companies are RMB, and foreign investment will inevitably lead to exchange rate exposure. The third part is stock index futures, which allows insurance companies to participate in the financing process of securities companies. Broaden the overseas investment market and investment varieties: further open the overseas market for investment, including 25 major developed countries and 2 emerging markets; Investment varieties cover equity, fixed income, real estate, funds, PE, REITs and other categories; Investment in derivative products is allowed for risk management and risk hedging, and 15% of insurance company premiums can be invested in overseas markets. Allow investment in GEM stocks: promote the insurance industry to support economic restructuring and transformation and upgrading, support the development of small and medium-sized enterprises, optimize the allocation structure of insurance assets, and allow insurance funds to invest in GEM listed companies, so that insurance companies can share the fruits brought about by China's economic transformation.
promoting the two-way opening of insurance asset management
In p>213, the China Insurance Regulatory Commission issued the Notice on Issues Related to the Pilot Project of Asset Management Products by Insurance Asset Management Companies, restarted the pilot project of insurance asset management products, and allowed insurance asset management companies to issue "one-to-one" directional asset management products and "one-to-many" aggregate products. Investors expanded from the insurance industry to the outside industry, and the investment scope also expanded from traditional fixed income to equity investment. Insurance companies can order banks to entrust some assets to insurance asset management companies in the form of special accounts, or they can issue products to be managed by other institutions or individuals.
In the past, although the CIRC allowed insurance companies to set up asset management companies, not all businesses could be carried out after the establishment of the company, and there was license management. Some asset management companies can only invest in stocks at the beginning of their establishment, some companies can invest in bonds but only secured bonds, some companies are not allowed to invest in infrastructure, and some companies are not allowed to invest in PE. In fact, their businesses are classified. To set up an asset management company, you may only be able to do a few of a dozen businesses. If you want to carry out other businesses, you must go to the China Insurance Regulatory Commission for certification and obtain a license. This time, the New Deal Insurance Regulatory Commission simplified the conditions for obtaining licenses.
according to the asset scale, 85% of insurance companies have their own asset management companies, and insurance companies will entrust their premium assets to their own asset management companies for management. Before the introduction of the New Deal, the CIRC relaxed a little, allowing insurance asset management companies to undertake assets entrusted by insurance companies outside their own groups. In 213, the China Insurance Regulatory Commission issued the Interim Measures for the Administration of Entrusted Investment of Insurance Funds, allowing insurance companies to entrust assets to securities companies, funds and other investment institutions. Insurance companies believe that while they can entrust their own assets to other companies for management, they should also allow insurance asset management companies to manage the assets of other external companies. Therefore, this new policy has expanded the scope of entrusted and entrusted business of insurance asset management institutions and allowed insurance asset management to be entrusted with assets outside the industry.
In p>213, the China Insurance Regulatory Commission and the China Securities Regulatory Commission jointly issued the Pilot Measures for Insurance Institutions to Invest in the Establishment of Fund Management Companies, which supports insurance institutions to invest in the establishment of fund management companies. Insurance institutions that can apply for the establishment of fund management companies include insurance companies, insurance group companies, insurance asset management companies and other insurance institutions. The asset management company of an insurance company can initiate a fund company as a shareholder to obtain a license from the CSRC to engage in public offering business, or the asset management company of an insurance company can directly apply for a license from the CSRC.
A multi-level regulatory framework was formed
In p>214, the China Insurance Regulatory Commission further promoted the market-oriented reform in the supervision of the use of insurance funds. The Notice on Strengthening and Improving the Supervision of the Proportion of Insurance Funds was issued, and the supervision proportion and mode of insurance investment management were significantly reformed, redefining the major categories of assets, and dividing the investment assets of insurance companies into five categories: liquid assets, fixed income assets, equity assets, real estate assets and other financial assets. Integrate all kinds of regulatory ratios, set up regulatory ratios of large-scale assets and concentration, and set up risk monitoring ratios to form a multi-level regulatory ratio framework. In the past, among each variety, the China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC) had a large number of proportional management, and there were many proportional restrictions on assets such as secured bonds and stocks. This time, assets were divided into five categories according to major categories, and a large-scale supervision ratio was established. The specific small proportion in the ratio was adjusted by the insurance company itself. Pilot stock policy investment in blue-chip stocks: Start the pilot stock policy investment in blue-chip stocks, allowing some insurance companies with historical stock policies to set up independent accounts for closed management, and the insurance companies will decide the investment ratio independently according to the assets and liabilities, and implement the countercyclical asset recognition standard for blue-chip stocks.
the new insurance policy makes it possible to carry out comprehensive asset allocation, and the new insurance investment policy provides more basic investment tools for insurance funds to carry out asset allocation, expanding from traditional open market investment to alternative investments such as infrastructure, equity and real estate, as well as overseas investment and financial derivatives trading, making it possible for insurance companies to carry out real asset allocation.
after the promulgation of the new insurance policy, insurance companies increased their investment in innovative products. Since the promulgation of the new insurance policy, the investment strategy of insurance companies has been to seize the opportunity of the policy liberalization of the China Insurance Regulatory Commission and accelerate the investment in innovative products and new channels, especially in debt investment plans, equity investment plans, innovative financial products and investment real estate. By the end of last year, the proportion of non-traditional investment reached 8.57%, which grew very rapidly.
A revolutionary framework for constructing insurance investment structure
In the study of economics, structure is a very huge system, which takes economic structure as the main body and includes the adaptability of economy, resources, environment and social structure. Economic structure includes two dimensions: first, horizontal spatial structure, including regional structure, international structure, and in developing countries, urban and rural structure; The other is the vertical production value chain with industrial structure as the core, mainly including industrial structure, investment and consumption structure and financial structure. The distribution structure and circulation structure in the process of social reproduction are included in the above-mentioned horizontal and vertical economic structures. jiegou's research emphasizes the imbalance and structural transformation in economic development.
Looking at the new policy of insurance fund utilization with jiegou, we can draw the following views:
First, the multi-level asset allocation system is greatly conducive to the stability and optimization of insurance investment structure.
insurance companies should not only explore excellent assets for allocation in the traditional open market field, but also give full play to the advantages of long-term and flexibility of insurance funds to allocate assets in alternative investment fields such as infrastructure, unlisted equity, real estate and financial products.
in the medium and long term, the domestic economic transformation has led to the continued weakness of macro fundamentals, and the economy is facing greater downward pressure; Judging from the inflation that affects the interest rate trend, the total demand is weak, inflation has certain uncertainty but the probability of a sharp rise is very low, and the macro basic face of the fixed income market will form a medium-and long-term support. Insurance institutions should grasp the allocation opportunity from the perspective of medium and long-term allocation.
Despite the overall downward trend of China's economy, there are still important structural opportunities in the equity market. Under the background of economic transformation, emerging industries and emerging industries that are in line with policy orientation and economic transformation direction may still grow steadily or even rapidly. Insurance institutions should seize the great opportunity of economic restructuring, focus on industries with low valuation and in line with economic transformation direction, and strive to explore investment opportunities.
insurance companies need to strategically consider allocating investment assets with long term, good security and high yield to make up for the shortcomings of allocating traditional assets, and further increase investment in infrastructure and equity. We should seize the strategic opportunity of national economic transformation and state-owned enterprise reform to obtain high-quality strategic assets. Insurance companies should focus on the national strategy of economic transformation and structural adjustment in infrastructure and equity investment, open up the connection between insurance funds and the real economy, and support the development of national key infrastructure projects and strategic emerging industries. It is necessary to make full use of the advantages of long-term funds, innovatively use creditor's rights, equity, stock-debt combination and other ways to actively carry out infrastructure investment, optimize asset structure, reduce the risk of mismatch between assets and liabilities, and effectively improve the long-term investment income ability of insurance funds.
the income characteristics of mezzanine investment meet the requirements of insurance fund matching. Mezzanine investment such as preferred stock can not only make insurance funds get higher returns, but also solve the financing problem of enterprises. Mezzanine investment has a sustained and stable return, and does not need to bear the risk of income fluctuation of equity investment. On the other hand, insurance funds precipitate a lot of long-term funds, and the demand for long-term and stable returns matches the capital characteristics of mezzanine investment. Compared with the existing trust and wealth management products with short term, insurance funds can provide financing for more than 1 years.
second, use financial derivatives to improve the efficiency of asset allocation and improve the internal vitality of insurance investment structure.
in recent years, with the continuous growth of the investment amount of insurance funds in China and the continuous expansion of investment channels, Chinese insurance companies have begun to introduce foreign advanced investment concepts, but they can't get rid of the problem of low investment return. This is mainly manifested as follows: the ability of asset-liability management of insurance companies is not high, the insurance business department and the fund utilization department have not established an effective communication mechanism, and the strategy of insurance fund utilization can not be formulated at the height of asset-liability matching, which makes the fund utilization out of line with the asset strategic allocation requirements of insurance companies; The shortage of talents matching the use of insurance funds, such as actuaries, senior accountants and international lawyers, has restricted the efficiency of the use and development of insurance funds in China.
Although diversified investment can reduce the overall risk of assets, it cannot eliminate the risk of market fluctuation. Financial derivatives can be used as a direct, effective and low-cost asset management tool to directly hedge the risk of market fluctuation. At present, insurance institutions have carried out pilot work on derivative transactions such as interest rate swap and foreign exchange forward, and achieved good results. Insurance institutions' participation in financial derivatives trading is limited to hedging, locking in income or locking in capital price, and the role of financial derivatives in the management and allocation of insurance assets has not been fully explored.
third, grasp the core of solvency supervision and build a revolutionary framework of insurance investment structure.
in the sense of supervision, the solvency of insurance companies is influenced by many factors, such as actual capital, investment income, liability reserve, matching of assets and liabilities, business strategy and so on. In actual operation, if insurance companies are eager to expand market share and scramble for sales channels regardless of cost, resulting in a large number of spread losses and fee difference losses, they will lose money and their solvency will be affected. If the investment situation is good, the underwriting loss will be earned back through the income from the use of funds; If the investment income is not good, it is more difficult to offset the underwriting loss with the investment income.
Xiang Junbo, chairman of the China Insurance Regulatory Commission, put forward at last year's work meeting that the market-oriented reform of product issuance systems such as infrastructure and real estate debt plan will be steadily promoted, and the industry will be guided to carry out product innovation and mechanism innovation. We will study and establish a solvency constraint system that runs through the whole process of insurance fund utilization. The asset-liability matching supervision committee of the China Insurance Regulatory Commission will be set up to strengthen the hard constraints of asset-liability management, relatively weaken proportional supervision, and urge the company to strengthen liability management and improve the level of asset-liability matching.
in short, "opening the front-end and managing the back-end" is the general idea of insurance regulatory reform, and it is also the magic weapon for the China Insurance Regulatory Commission to speed up the transformation of the supervision mode of fund utilization this year, aiming at changing the focus of supervision from open channels to risk supervision and putting risk prevention in a more prominent position in supervision. "Opening the front-end" is to reduce the pre-supervision methods such as administrative examination and approval, and hand over the risk responsibility and investment right to the market subject. "manage the back end" from a narrow perspective