Banking and insurance channels contributed significantly to high growth last year; regulators refine the "report and operate as one" requirement

● Our Reporter: Cheng Zhu; Li Yunqi

In 2025, listed banks and insurance companies released their annual reports in rapid succession. The growth pull from bank-insurance distribution channels for life insurers has been particularly prominent. Insurers at the top of the market have seen rapid growth in both premium income and new business value realized through their bank-insurance channels. Against this backdrop, the regulatory authorities recently issued in the industry the “Notice on Further Strengthening the Fee Management of Bank Agency Channels” (hereinafter referred to as the “Fee Management Notice”), further clarifying the work requirements for “report-and-file together” (“报行合一”) in bank-insurance channels. It requires insurance companies to incorporate compliance management for “report-and-file together” into their company performance evaluation and accountability mechanisms, and to establish an industry-wide notification mechanism for violations and typical cases related to “report-and-file together.” This move will promote fair competition in the industry and help drive high-quality development.

Notable Achievements in Bank-Insurance Channels

Based on the 2025 annual reports of various listed insurers, the bank-insurance channels of leading life insurers are performing strongly across the board. In many cases, premium income in the bank-insurance channels of insurance companies has achieved growth of 30% or more. Among them, China Life’s total premium income in its bank-insurance channel was 110.87B yuan, breaking the trillion-yuan mark, up 45.5%; New China Life’s premium income in its bank-insurance channel was 72.1B yuan, up 39.5%; PICC Life achieved premium income from bank-insurance channels of 68.28B yuan in original insurance premiums, up 33.5%; and Ping An Life’s bank-insurance channel scale premium was 61.62B yuan, up 46.4%.

In addition, the share of bank-insurance channels in new policies has also increased significantly. They have risen from an auxiliary channel to become a core growth engine for the industry. In 2025, China Life’s new-policy premium in its bank-insurance channel was 58.51B yuan, up 95.7%; in Ping An Life’s bank-insurance channel, the proportion of customers at and above the middle-customer level was 41%, up 1.8 percentage points year over year, with the number of high-value and ultra-high-value customers growing rapidly.

New business value is a core indicator for assessing the future profitability potential of insurers. Looking at the new business value from bank-insurance channels last year, leading insurers all achieved rapid growth. Ping An Life, New China Life, and PICC Life even more than doubled, with growth rates of 138.0%, 110.2%, and 102.3% respectively, and the value contribution rate from bank-insurance channels has increased significantly.

Sun Ting, Chief Analyst for Non-Bank Financials at Soochow Securities, said that with the deepening of “report-and-file together” in bank-insurance channels and the background of loosening limits on the number of partnerships between bank outlets and insurance companies, the competitive advantage and business-expansion enthusiasm of leading insurers in the bank-insurance market have improved markedly.

Regulatory Strengthening of Fee Management in Bank-Insurance Channels

While bank-insurance channels are experiencing rapid growth, the regulatory authorities have again issued documents to clarify the requirements for “report-and-file together,” further detailing fee management requirements for bank-insurance channels and promoting high-quality development in the industry.

Industry insiders believe that compared with the “Notice on Regulating Business of Bank Agency Channels for Individual Life Insurance Companies” issued at the beginning of 2024, the “Fee Management Notice” is not simply a restatement, but achieves “tightening” and “closing gaps” in three dimensions. First, the scope of fee definitions is comprehensively expanded—from commissions to various types of costs. Second, it clarifies the various responsibility subjects involved in internal governance and accountability. Third, it upgrades regulatory tools and adds regulatory measures for industry-wide notifications.

The “Fee Management Notice” clearly states that when an insurance company submits product filing/registration for bank agency channel products, it must, in accordance with the requirements of the smart review and verification system for individual life insurance products, submit levels of (i) commissions paid to banks, (ii) salary incentives for bank-insurance specialists, training and customer service fees, (iii) and apportioned fixed expenses, among others, respectively. When insurance companies carry out business through bank agency channels, they must implement the fee policy according to the actuarial report for the products that has been filed/registered. Any fee expenditure must be supported by authentic, lawful, and effective documentation.

At the same time, the responsibilities of persons at all levels under the “report-and-file together” work have also been clarified in the “Fee Management Notice.” The “Fee Management Notice” requires insurance companies to incorporate compliance management for “report-and-file together” into their internal performance evaluation and accountability mechanisms. In addition, the regulatory authorities have established an industry notification mechanism for violations related to “report-and-file together” and typical cases, and will promptly notify the regulators of insurance group companies and their legal-person institutions of the relevant situations.

Xu Yizhou, Chief Analyst for Non-Bank Financials at Industrial Securities, said that although the competitive landscape for bank-insurance channel fees has been somewhat eased after the implementation of the “report-and-file together” policy, the market has seen a range of innovative avoidance methods. This time, the regulatory authorities moved to curb the “involution” competition in bank-insurance channels and close the loopholes that appear in actual implementation, with strong targeted effects. By clarifying the accountability mechanism for insurers’ management, it strengthens insurers’ sense of self-driven compliance in implementing “report-and-file together” internally. It is expected that insurers’ fee management and control will become more standardized.

Promoting Healthy and Sustainable Development

In addition to refining the requirements for the “report-and-file together” work, the “Fee Management Notice” also attached the “Q&A on Matters Related to Fee Management for Bank Agency Channels (I),” providing answers on issues such as how insurance companies pay commission expenses to bank agency channels, how to strengthen management of compensation incentives for bank-insurance specialists, how to formulate and manage temporary incentive plans, and how to carry out business promotion activity management. These detailed provisions help to safeguard high-quality development of bank-insurance channels.

Industry insiders believe that the competitive logic of insurers’ bank-insurance channels is undergoing a fundamental reversal. The past extensive model—“whoever offers higher fees can grab the outlets”—has completely failed. In the future, bank-insurance channels will compete on product competitiveness, service capability, and refined cost control capability.

Several insurers highly value high-quality development in bank-insurance channels. For example, in its 2025 annual report, New China Life stated that the bank-insurance channel adheres to a high-quality development orientation, implements a business strategy that gives equal weight to premium scale and value, and continues to advance the building of “strong departments and excellent teams” (“强部优组”) and the “three-three system” (“三三制”). It also fully implements the company’s strategic deployments such as the “Strengthening the Foundation Project” (“强基工程”) and the “XIN Plan” (“XIN计划”). In its 2025 annual report, Ping An Life stated that its bank-insurance channel adheres to value as the core, improves the efficiency of channel operations, optimizes customer allocation from the outlet to the network (“人网配置”), and deepens efforts at outlets; it focuses on building professional teams and insists on building the best, managing the best, and training the best (“优建、优管、优训”), with team productivity continuing to improve.

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Responsible Editor: Li Linlin