Insight into Annual Reports | Over 400 billion yuan in profit in one year! What new trends are revealed in the annual reports of listed insurance companies?

Over the past week, five A-share listed insurance companies (China Life, Ping An, PICC, China Taiping, and New China Life) have continued to roll out their 2025 “performance scorecards.”

Unsurprisingly, as the stock market rebounded, the attributable net profits of all five listed insurers increased year over year, with total profit exceeding 400 billion yuan.

Amid the standout performance, Beike Finance & Economics reporters noted that last year, all five listed insurers increased their allocation to stock investments, making the impact of volatility in the capital markets on profits greater. From the standpoint of life insurance business, the premium growth rate in individual insurance channels was far lower than in the bancassurance channel, and dividend insurance has become the main product type driving insurance growth for each insurer.

In addition, listed insurers also “all at once” repeatedly mentioned their investment and deployment in the artificial intelligence (AI) field in their annual reports, with intelligent transformation becoming a major trend in the development of the insurance industry.

【Asset side】

**Collectivelyincreasing their positions!**Investment returns drive profit growth Quarterly profit volatility increases

In 2025, the total attributable net profits of the five A-share listed insurers were approximately 425.29 billion yuan. Among them, China Life recorded the highest growth rate in attributable net profit, up 44.1% year over year to 154.08B yuan. New China Life saw attributable net profit rise 38.3% year over year to 36.28B yuan. China Taiping, PICC, and Ping An’s attributable net profit growth rates were 19%, 8.8%, and 6.5%, respectively.

Last year, as the capital markets rebounded, the five listed insurers increased their equity investments, and higher investment returns became a common reason for these insurers’ profit growth.

Beike Finance & Economics reporters found that last year the investment return rates of all five listed insurers improved year over year. Among them, New China Life had the highest total investment return rate, rising 0.8 percentage points to 6.6%. China Life’s total investment return rate rose 0.59 percentage points to 6.09%. China Taiping and PICC each rose 0.1 percentage points to 5.7%. Ping An disclosed its total comprehensive investment return rate, rising 0.5 percentage points to 6.3%.

Behind the improvement in total investment return rates, insurers are collectively accelerating their pace of entering the market.

Data show that by the end of 2025, the amounts of stock investments held by the five listed insurers all increased year over year, totaling approximately 2.51 trillion yuan—an increase of 75% from the end of 2024.

Meanwhile, by the end of 2025, the stock investment ratios of the five listed insurers were all higher than at the end of 2024. Among them, Ping An’s stock investment ratio was the highest at 14.8%, up 7.2 percentage points from the end of 2024. New China Life’s stock investment ratio has remained at a high level for two consecutive years, at about 11.8% by the end of 2025.

A research report from Huatai Securities said that in 2025, seven major listed insurance companies (in addition to the above five A-share listed insurers, also including China Taiping and Sunshine Insurance listed in Hong Kong) saw an increase in the configuration scale of FVOCI stocks (which are basically high-dividend stocks) by 633.8 billion yuan to 1.2 trillion yuan. The incremental allocation was more than twice the 312.0 billion yuan in 2024. “Against the backdrop of interest rates staying at low levels and the cost of rigid liabilities remaining high and difficult to relieve, insurers still need to treat dividends as a necessary supplement to cash returns, and it is expected that they will need to increase allocations by 400 billion to 600 billion yuan every year going forward.”

It should be noted that although listed insurers benefit from higher investment returns, capital market volatility is significant, which can also lead to pronounced swings in quarterly profits of listed insurers.

For example, in the first three quarters of 2025, China Life’s attributable net profit was about 167.8 billion yuan, higher than its full-year profit of 25.1k yuan from 2024. This means that China Life incurred a loss in the fourth quarter of 2025.

At China Life’s performance briefing, China Life’s President Li Mingguang said: “The profit in the fourth quarter of 2025 is negative, reflecting the net effect between the full-year results and the first three quarters’ results. The main reason is that the capital markets underwent structural adjustments, and some of the stocks and funds the company holds experienced a pullback in the fourth quarter of 2025.”

Li Mingguang said that most of this volatility is phased and reflects changes in the capital markets. Life insurers have long-cycle and cross-cycle business management characteristics, so the company recommends that everyone reduce over-interpretation of single-quarter profit.

Entering 2026, market volatility has increased. The SSE Composite Index briefly rose to the historical high of 4,197 points in early March, and then in late March it fell below 3,800 points intraday. In such a market environment, how will this year’s listed insurers allocate their equity assets?

At a company performance briefing, Qin Hongbo, Deputy General Manager of New China Life, said the company is firmly optimistic about the medium- to long-term development prospects of China’s capital markets. It mainly focuses on three main lines: industries with improving business conditions and continuous optimization of performance, industries aligned with national strategic directions—especially sectors related to new-quality productive forces—and also the sustained advancement of high-dividend investment strategies in a low-interest-rate environment.

At a company performance briefing, Cai Zhiwei, Deputy General Manager of PICC, said that equity investment is the decisive factor for stabilizing and improving investment performance. The company will continue to focus on the allocation of high-dividend stocks under OCI (fair value changes recognized in other comprehensive income), and will also focus on growth opportunities embedded in the “14th Five-Year Plan (15th Five-Year Plan for 2026-2030)” development plan, strengthen research into key industries and key sectors, and build a long-term equity investment portfolio that is steady in performance, has market competitiveness, and is more balanced.

【Liability side】

**Dividend insurance becomes the main insurance product **and risk prevention for interest spread loss

In 2025, while the asset side of listed insurers performed well as the stock market rebounded, the liability side also showed some new trends.

According to Beike Finance & Economics reporters, dividend insurance has become the main product type driving premium growth for listed insurers.

China Life said in its annual report that during the reporting period, dividend insurance business achieved rapid growth; its share of first-year paid premiums in the individual insurance channel rose to nearly 60%, becoming an important support for new premium business.

China Taiping Life’s 2025 new dividend insurance premium for the new policy term reached 12k yuan, up significantly year over year. The share of dividend insurance within the new policy term increased to 50.0%.

In 2025, New China Life’s original premium income from dividend-type insurance was 154.08B yuan, up 33% year over year. The annual report stated that the proportion of dividend insurance in overall premium-related business increased quarter by quarter, with the dividend insurance share reaching 77.0% in the fourth quarter.

Ping An’s life and health insurance business’s premium income from dividend insurance under its umbrella grew 41% year over year to 22.16B yuan. Its annual report stated that in a low-interest-rate environment, the company strengthened R&D of floating-return products and enhanced the appeal of dividend products by building a differentiated dividend account system.

This aligns with the industry’s major trend. According to relevant statistical data from the China Insurance Industry Association, in 2025, original premium income from dividend insurance reached 904.2 billion yuan, up 18.06% year over year, making it the fastest-growing business in the life insurance sector.

An analysis in a research report by Kaiyuan Securities said that in a low-interest-rate environment, dividend insurance combines guaranteed returns and floating returns, making the product more attractive and turning it into the main vehicle for absorbing deposit migration. At the same time, regulatory policies support insurers to improve their floating-type products to address the risk of long-term interest spread losses, and the relaunch of dividend-type critical illness insurance has brought new opportunities for the industry. “An increase in the share of dividend insurance helps reduce insurers’ risk of interest spread losses and lowers volatility in reporting indicators.”

At a performance briefing, New China Life’s President Gong Xingfeng said that promoting the transformation of dividend insurance is an important measure to prevent the risk of interest spread losses. Dividend insurance products are also the most effective type of product for enabling customers to share in the company’s development outcomes. “But in terms of value ratios, dividend insurance does indeed reduce them slightly compared with traditional insurance, which will pose some challenges to the growth of new business value and value ratios. The company has implemented a series of measures to promote steady and sustained growth in new business value.”

【Channel side】

Premium growth in bancassurance channels far higher than in individual insurance channels

From the perspective of channels, all listed insurers show a trend where premium growth in bancassurance channels is much higher than in individual insurance channels.

For example, in 2025, New China Life’s individual insurance channel premium income grew 4.0% year over year, while its bancassurance channel premium income grew 39.5% year over year. PICC Life’s original premium income in the individual insurance channel grew 5.4% year over year, while its original premium income in the bancassurance channel grew 33.5%. China Life’s total premiums in the individual insurance channel grew 4.3% year over year, while its total premiums in the bancassurance channel grew 45.5%.

On one hand, this is related to the higher base of premiums in the individual insurance channel. On the other hand, it also shows that each insurer is actively developing the bancassurance channel, which is indeed an inevitable trend following changes in regulatory policy.

In August 2023, the bancassurance channel launched “reporting and settlement integration” (“reporting and filing consistent,” meaning that the pricing assumptions used in product approval or备案 materials submitted by insurance companies to regulators—such as fee assumptions—must be consistent with the company’s behavior in actual operations). In the first half of 2024, premium for life insurance business via the bancassurance channel for listed insurers declined across the board.

But as the effects of the policy gradually took hold, and combined with the 2024 regulatory document that broke the rule that “each branch outlet of a commercial bank may cooperate with no more than 3 insurance companies within the same accounting year” for insurance agency business, without limiting the number of insurance companies that branches and outlets can cooperate with at all levels, in 2025, the bancassurance channel for life insurance business of listed insurers fully surged.

Looking ahead, the bancassurance channel will continue to be one of the main channels where listed insurers will focus their efforts. At a performance briefing, Lan Yonghong, Assistant President of China Life, said the company will fully leverage its brand, broad network coverage, workforce, and advantages from long-term cooperation with banks, and seize the current development opportunities.

【Technology side】

AI becomes a hot annual-report topic Differences in AI investment between leading and mid-/small-sized insurers affect the industry’s competitive landscape

In addition to operating performance, Beike Finance & Economics reporters also noted that artificial intelligence is a major hot topic in the annual reports of listed insurers.

After searching, reporters found that in Ping An’s 2025 annual report, AI or artificial intelligence appeared 75 times; in China Taiping’s annual report, it appeared 31 times; and in China Life’s annual report, it appeared 12 times.

Ping An’s annual report shows that its AI technology has been applied across multiple stages including policy issuance, claims, risk control, review, and service. In 2025, relying on technologies such as AI digital robots and intelligent camera recognition, the proportion of “flash claims” reached 59%; and Ping An Property & Casualty achieved savings by intercepting fraudulent claims through AI-enabled intelligent claims systems, reducing losses by 10.51 billion yuan.

China Life uses AI to improve quality and efficiency, with the proportion of AI-assisted programming code reaching 30%. In 2025, the operating rate of its digital underwriting assistants exceeded 24%, and the intelligent review rate for policy servicing reached 99%.

At a performance briefing, Qin Hongbo said that the company launched 11 large model intelligent agents last year, covering the front, middle, and back office, with a problem-resolution rate of more than 97% and an answer accuracy rate nearing 100%.

Zhu Junsheng, a postdoctoral researcher and professor in applied economics at Peking University, told Beike Finance & Economics reporters that AI is becoming the “infrastructure” of insurance companies. When leading insurers apply AI in underwriting, claims, customer service, and other areas, in essence they are reshaping operational efficiency. What AI brings is not only cost reduction, but more importantly “improving efficiency + improving quality.” Therefore, insurers that are the first to complete AI capability deployment will form continuing advantages in expense ratios, customer experience, and risk control capabilities.

Worth noting is that leading insurers’ substantial investments in new technologies such as AI are in stark contrast to mid-/small-sized insurers, and this will have what impact on the development of the insurance industry?

Zhu Junsheng further analyzed that AI investment has a distinct feature of “high upfront investment and later-stage scaling and cost dilution.” Leading insurers, with stronger financial resources and richer data accumulation, are more likely to clear the initial investment hurdle and reduce unit costs through economies of scale. But mid-/small-sized insurers, due to limited investment capacity, rely more on human labor and traditional processes in the short term, with stronger cost rigidity. “If this kind of difference continues, it will lead to structural divergence in the industry’s expense ratios and operational efficiency.”

However, Zhu Junsheng believes that this difference does not mean mid-/small-sized insurers have no opportunities. Through third-party technology companies and others, mid-/small-sized insurers can also, to a certain extent, “borrow strength” to close capability gaps. “Overall, in the short term, differences in AI investment are reflected as differences in efficiency and cost. In the long term, they may evolve into divergence in the competitive landscape. But as technology barriers gradually lower, this gap may not be irreversible—the key is whether insurers can find application paths that match their own resource endowments.”

Beike Finance & Economics reporter from The Beijing News Pan Yichun

Editor Yue Caizhou

Proofreader Mu Xiangtong