Cumulative life insurance premiums turned negative in August. Data recently released by the National Financial Regulatory Administration showed that in the first eight months, original insurance premium income reached 4.82 trillion yuan, up 0.4% year on year. Among this, premiums of life insurance companies stood at 3.57 trillion yuan, showing negative growth of 0.2%, which is also the first time this year that cumulative premiums of life insurance companies have shown negative growth. Industry analysts judged that the high base disturbance in the same period last year and the new "unified reporting and execution" rules for the bancassurance channel were the core reasons for short-term premium fluctuations, but over the medium and long term, residents' demand for savings-type insurance allocation remains strong.
Life Insurance Premiums Continue to Face Pressure
Data from the National Financial Regulatory Administration showed that in the first eight months of this year, premiums of life insurance companies were 3.57 trillion yuan, with year-on-year growth shifting from positive 1.8% in the first seven months to negative 0.2%, also the first time this year that cumulative premiums of life insurance companies have turned negative. In fact, looking at the premium growth of life insurance companies this year, cumulative premium growth from January to August declined month by month, while the divergence that pushed life insurance company premiums from positive to negative in the first eight months mainly occurred in July and August.
In July this year, the single-month original insurance premium scale of life insurance companies was 299.2 billion yuan, down 13.2% year on year; in August, the single-month figure of 401.1 billion yuan saw a year-on-year decline that widened by 0.4 percentage points from July to 13.6%. Two consecutive months of single-month premium declines above 13% directly dragged cumulative premiums into negative growth.
Regarding the reasons for the "plunge" in growth, market explanations were relatively consistent. Combining the views of several industry analysts, the core factor was the high base formed by the switch of products under the assumed interest rate in the same period of 2025. In July 2025, the Insurance Association of China disclosed that the research value of the assumed interest rate for ordinary life insurance products was recognized as 1.99%, triggering the first downward adjustment of the assumed interest rate for life insurance products after the implementation of the dynamic adjustment mechanism. On the same day, several insurance companies announced that they would lower product rates on September 1. Driven by this, single-month life insurance premiums in August 2025 surged by nearly 50% year on year. This year's disclosed research value of the assumed interest rate did not trigger a new round of downward adjustment of the assumed interest rate.
On the other hand, some industry analysts also said that after the new "unified reporting and execution" rules for the bancassurance channel, referred to as "Bancassurance Document No. 65," landed in July, room for channel fees narrowed further, banks and insurers entered a period of renewed adjustment, and some demand had already been released in advance. However, industry analysts had differing views on the outlook for subsequent premium growth. The team of Sun Ting, chief non-bank financial analyst at Soochow Securities, said premium growth in September may see marginal improvement. Western Securities said short-term single-month premiums may continue to fluctuate, and the central level of full-year cumulative growth may shift downward; Guotai Haitong also expected insurance companies to face greater base pressure in the third quarter and expected the operating focus in the fourth quarter to shift toward preparations for the opening-year campaign. "The company has already launched next year's opening-year campaign. Although the name has changed somewhat, the substance has not changed much, and products are still mainly participating insurance," an agent at a large insurance company told Yicai.
However, against the backdrop of highly homogeneous product forms in the market, the agent said the company's 2027 opening-year campaign will focus on scenarios, "allocating specific products and services based on customers' future life scenarios." In fact, according to the reporter's understanding, several insurance companies that have basically completed their full-year tasks have already started preparations for the 2027 opening-year campaign. Soochow Securities expected that companies' 2027 opening-year products may still mainly feature participating insurance, and the design of "guaranteed return (1.75%) plus floating return" remains attractive to customers. From a medium- and long-term perspective, several industry analysts said insurance savings demand remains strong, the appeal of participating insurance continues, and insurers will continue to develop diversified products and services, with the industry shifting from scale competition to value competition.
Non-Auto Insurance Remains the Growth Engine for Property Insurance
Against the backdrop of cumulative premium growth of life insurance companies turning from positive to negative, industry premium growth in the first eight months was entirely contributed by property insurance companies. Data from the National Financial Regulatory Administration showed that in the first eight months, original insurance premium income of property insurance companies was 1.2473 trillion yuan, up 2.2% year on year, slightly down from 2.3% in the first seven months. Among this, in the first eight months, original insurance premium income from auto insurance and non-auto insurance was 600.6 billion yuan and 646.7 billion yuan respectively, with auto insurance flat year on year and non-auto insurance up 4.4% year on year. The share of non-auto insurance in property insurance premiums rose to 51.8%, continuing to serve as the industry's growth engine.
Among non-auto insurance lines, the health insurance business of property insurance companies saw August premiums rise 29% year on year, 2 percentage points higher than July growth. Western Securities believed that as "unified reporting and execution" gradually advances across non-auto insurance lines, disorderly expense competition in the industry is expected to converge further, and listed insurers' expense ratios and combined ratios have room for continued optimization. Coupled with rising corporate risk protection demand and improvements in the livelihood protection system, non-auto businesses such as liability insurance and health insurance are expected to maintain relatively rapid growth, supporting the long-term steady development of the property insurance industry. In auto insurance, cumulative premiums remained flat for three consecutive months. According to data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, in August, automobile production and sales fell 4.7% and 5.1% year on year respectively, while production and sales of new energy vehicles rose 19% and 18% year on year respectively. Industry participants believed that although the growth rate of new energy vehicles is high, the increase in penetration has not yet formed enough premium compensation, so total auto insurance lacks upward momentum.
Beyond premiums, pressure on the claims side deserves more attention. In the first half of the year, the insurance industry's claim and benefit payments totaled 1.40 trillion yuan, up 3.8% year on year; among this, property insurance companies' claim payments were 530.4 billion yuan, up 2.2% year on year, with claim growth broadly in line with premium growth. But entering the second half of the year, natural disasters caused by climate change appeared intensively, and claims pressure rose noticeably. Data previously disclosed by the National Financial Regulatory Administration showed that as of 9:00 on July 13, for rainstorm, flood, and typhoon disasters in 20 provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities including Guangxi, Hubei, and Zhejiang, the insurance industry had received nearly 380,000 reports, with estimated losses of 6.38 billion yuan and paid claims of 2.89 billion yuan. "We expect natural disasters in the third quarter to be more numerous than in the same period last year, which may have a certain impact on the short-term combined ratio (COR)," Soochow Securities noted in a research report, but with the advancement of comprehensive governance of non-auto insurance and companies' continued cost reduction and efficiency improvement, the overall profitability space of the property insurance industry is expected to improve gradually.