Listed Insurance Companies Annual Report Review | Property and Casualty Insurance Industry: Shifting from Scale Competition to Efficiency Improvement

Ask AI · How can non-auto insurance comprehensive management reshape the industry’s profit model?

By 2025, the property insurance industry will shift from focusing on scale and cost to strong management and efficiency improvement, with significant effects on quality and productivity. Specifically, while maintaining a stable auto insurance base, new energy vehicle insurance strives to break even and turn profitable, with increasing operational resilience; non-auto insurance businesses will bid farewell to high-cost,粗放 expansion, and their profitability will gradually recover.

The “China Banking and Insurance Journal” reviewed annual reports and found that the property insurance subsidiaries of listed insurers—People’s Insurance Company of China (PICC), Ping An Property & Casualty, Taiping Property & Casualty, Taiping Insurance, and China Re—have all achieved positive growth in insurance service income, with most showing better combined cost ratios than the previous year.

01

Profitability of New Energy Vehicle Insurance Improved

From loss to profit, new energy vehicle insurance is entering a critical turning point. Data from listed insurers’ operations in 2025 show that some leading insurers have achieved underwriting profitability in their new energy vehicle insurance businesses first.

“Ping An Property & Casualty’s new energy vehicle insurance combined cost ratio is below 100%, which is very rare,” said Fu Xin, Vice President and CFO of Ping An. In 2025, Ping An Property & Casualty’s combined cost ratio reached its best level in five years, with the auto insurance combined cost ratio at 95.8%.

Chen Hui, General Manager of Taiping Property & Casualty, said that the household vehicle new energy insurance business has entered a stable profit zone and expects the substitution effect of new energy vehicles to continue. “The growth rate of new energy vehicle insurance exceeds that of overall auto insurance, thanks to the company’s strategic布局 in the new energy field early on,” Chen said. Taiping Property & Casualty promotes overall cost improvement of new energy vehicle insurance through exclusive management of car brands,科技赋能 claims reduction, and further strengthening of the service system.

People’s Insurance Company of China’s new energy vehicle insurance loss ratio has decreased compared to 2024. Zhang Daoming, member of PICC’s Party Committee and Secretary of PICC Property & Casualty, said that in 2025, the overall loss ratio of new energy vehicle insurance has improved to some extent. The accident rate for new energy vehicles continued to decline, while average claims per case increased, mainly due to a higher proportion of large personal injury cases. In 2026, the trend of declining accident rates is expected to continue, with the combined cost ratio of new energy vehicle insurance further improving and profitability increasing.

Meanwhile, the comprehensive cost ratio of auto insurance has been optimized across the board. In 2025, PICC Property & Casualty focused on key areas like vehicle damage and personal injury, increasing cost control efforts. The auto insurance combined cost ratio was 95.3%, down 1.5 percentage points; underwriting profit reached 14.26B yuan, up 53.6%. Taiping Property & Casualty’s auto insurance combined cost ratio was 95.6%, down 2.6 percentage points, achieving its best underwriting profit in recent years. Ping An Property & Casualty’s combined cost ratio was 98.1%, up 0.3 percentage points, mainly due to increased liabilities from lower discount rates under new insurance contract standards and frequent natural disasters like heavy rain.

02

Results of Non-Auto Insurance “Comprehensive Governance” Become Evident

“Long-term losses in the non-auto insurance sector and突出竞争 issues in some areas. To promote high-quality development of non-auto insurance, in October 2025, the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission issued the ‘Notice on Strengthening Supervision of Non-Auto Insurance Business,’ initiating industry-wide ‘comprehensive governance’ of non-auto insurance. With the implementation of various regulatory measures, the profitability of non-auto insurance is expected to gradually recover and enter a profit cycle,” Zhang Daoming said.

According to reports, PICC Property & Casualty began全面实施 non-auto insurance premium collection and issuance on November 1, 2025; completed product upgrades and clause filings for corporate property insurance by December 1, 2025; and completed employer liability insurance product upgrades and clause filings by February 1, 2026. Other non-auto insurance products are being systematically reviewed and upgraded step by step according to regulatory requirements.

“By 2026, PICC Property & Casualty’s non-auto insurance ‘comprehensive governance’ is expected to first reflect in the combined expense ratios of corporate property, employer liability, and safety liability insurance, with an expected reduction of over two percentage points,” Zhang said.

“From a medium- to long-term perspective, ‘comprehensive governance’ will help improve market environment, optimize cost-effectiveness of non-auto insurance, and promote a shift from expense-driven to technology- and service-driven high-quality operation,” Chen Hui believes. Considering the development trend of the实体经济 and the overall布局 of property insurers, the non-auto insurance premium growth is expected to remain steady in 2026.

It is worth noting that these listed property insurance companies, through精细化管理 and channel cost control, have all kept their overall comprehensive cost ratios below 100%, demonstrating strong operational resilience. In 2025, Taiping Property & Casualty’s comprehensive cost ratio was 97.5%, down 1.1 percentage points; PICC Property & Casualty’s was 97.6%, down 0.9 points; Ping An Property & Casualty’s was 98.3%, down 2.3 points; and China Taiping’s was 98.8%, down 2.4 points.

Peng Yunping, General Manager (designate) of Taiping Property & Casualty, said that the decline in the company’s comprehensive expense ratio is backed by a full set of cost management and渠道专业化改革. First, optimize the business structure, expand the value contribution of profitable segments, with auto insurance renewal rate up by 1.4 percentage points, and non-auto insurance service income growing by 6.3%, including a 7.8% increase in personal customer premiums with better profitability. Second, deepen full-cost management, enhance渠道专业化能力, improve expense投入效率, establish a comprehensive cost monitoring mechanism, and strengthen benchmarking analysis of the overall expense ratio.

03

Safeguarding New Scenarios, Exploring New Drivers

Looking at premium data, although growth among listed property insurers remains稳健, the overall growth rate has slowed. Therefore, during this critical period of transitioning between old and new动力, exploring new scenarios and new drivers has become a consensus for industry development.

“Looking ahead, the industry’s development momentum is accumulating, and overall opportunities outweigh challenges,” Zhang Daoming said. People’s Insurance will firmly grasp six major strategic opportunities: first, boosting消费机会, accelerating product iteration and innovation, focusing on health insurance, family insurance, and cultural tourism insurance, to quickly develop a second growth curve in personal non-auto insurance; second,民生保障机遇, strategically deepening long-term care and outpatient chronic disease markets, expanding differentiated竞争优势 in the大健康 field; third, modern产业体系建设机遇, discovering new growth points in法人业务; fourth, the ‘Belt and Road’ and high-level opening-up opportunities, actively integrating into the national海外综合服务体系, and expanding shipping insurance and China’s overseas利益业务; fifth,交通强国建设机遇,完善新能源车险定价模型,前瞻性布局智能驾驶保险,继续实施“绿动出海”项目, high-quality development of new energy vehicle insurance增量业务; sixth,乡村振兴机遇, based on agricultural产业链需求, expanding local特色农险业务, consolidating and提升农险市场地位.

Chen Hui said that in serving car companies’ “going global” efforts, Taiping Property & Casualty will adapt to the overseas development trend of Chinese car companies, deepen cooperation with automakers, and accelerate the formation and推广 of business models.

“People’s Insurance Journal” reporter Fang Wenbin

“People’s Insurance Journal” editor Li Mengxi