Research On The Development Of Bank Agent Channels Of Life Insurance Companies In China

The bank agency channel is one of the main channels for Chinese life insurance companies to obtain the original premium income and plays a decisive role in the marketing channel of life insurance companies.An essential assurance for life insurance companies to achieve growth in business revenue and long-term,steady development is a high-quality bank agency channel.The number of life insurance agents in China has been steadily declining in recent years as a result of internal and external environment changes,and the growth of original premium income from life insurance business in the personal agency channel has been constrained.In contrast,original premium income from life insurance business in the bank agency channel has continued to make strides and has experienced positive growth for four years running.Accelerating the development of bank agency channels has emerged as a critical strategic plan for life insurance firms.Redefining the development pattern of the bank agency channel is a challenge shared by the entire bancassurance industry as the traditional bank agency channel development model is no longer able to adapt to the new development environment in which China’s life insurance industry is currently operating.Even though some of the top life insurance companies in China are actively looking into new avenues for the growth of bank agent channels,they are all still in the exploratory and early development stages and are therefore still in their infancy when compared to the mature bancassurance market.This article has taken preliminary conclusions from a study of a number of Chinese life insurance companies’ bank agency channels: For starters,New business value in the bank agency channel is still minimal.According to the study,while some of China’s top life insurance companies have very significant premium income from life insurance business through the bank agency channel,the value of new business it brings to the company is still very limited,making it difficult for life insurance companies to sustain in the long run.Secondly,it’s challenging for bank marketers to sell complicated,expensive bancassurance products.High-value bancassurance products are expensive to run and difficult to market,and banks haven’t put enough money into improving their ability to sell these products.Thirdly,the performance of the bank agency channel health insurance business is poor.Whether it is from bank insurance business income or sales volume of bank insurance goods,the health insurance business is under increased development pressure,which is not conducive to the follow-up development of the bank agent channel’s health insurance business.Fourthly,life insurance firms engaged in unhealthy competition by using bancassurance fees.The lack of cooperation among bank-insurance companies and the homogeneity of bancassurance products made the fierce rivalry among bancassurance commissions even worse.Fifthly,customers’ interactions with banks and insurance firms are difficult to synergize.It is challenging for both banks and insurers to achieve a common interest aim because of the distinct business characteristics and purposes of banks and life insurance firms.As a result,there are substantial variations in how they operate their consumers.Sixthly,there is a lack of stability in the relationship between banks and insurance firms.Since individual life insurance businesses even compete with their partner banks for customer resources,China’s bancassurance cooperation model is quite lax,making it impossible to guarantee a long-term and stable partnership between insurance companies and banks.The investigation also showed that there are still a few life insurance businesses that can benefit from the experience of developing and refining their bank agency channels.In China,the expansion of bank agency channels for life insurance companies has a number of issues overall.In order to offer some direction for the current and future development of bank agency channels for life insurance companies in China,this article conducts a study for that purpose and suggests appropriate remedies from the perspectives of both life insurance businesses and regulators.Lastly,a broad summary of the paper’s organization.The article began by outlining the context and importance of this study.Life insurance companies in China have embarked on a new journey to investigate the development mode of bancassurance thanks to favorable economic conditions and policies,however,there are still a number of flaws in the development process,which brings us to the research topic of this paper:the investigation of the growth of life insurance companies’ bank agency channels in China.The second section of the article introduced the case of Ping An Life’s new bancassurance team and summarized their experience in order to demonstrate the necessity of developing bank agency channels for life insurance companies in China.Then the paper reviewed and summarized relevant domestic and international literature to provide a theoretical foundation for the study.The article’s main section was divided into three sections: firstly,it analyzed the current situation of the development of the banking agency channel of life insurance companies in China;secondly,it analyzed the challenges to that development;and thirdly,it analyzed the factors influencing that development.Finally,it suggested,taking into account the current issues and influencing factors,the improvement and optimization of the banking agency channel of life insurance companies from the viewpoints of the regulatory authorities and life insurance companies,respectively.