The story of bancassurance may never have truly centered on insurance companies.
While multiple factors over the past year—such as the integration of reporting and operations, product transitions, intensified efforts by major insurers, and accelerated foreign capital inflows—have pushed bancassurance back into the spotlight of life insurance liability discussions, the real protagonist has likely always been the banks.
Especially as the agency channel remains in deep adjustment, with many real changes difficult for outsiders to fully observe, bancassurance data has been explosive: new policy scale, channel contribution, and even value growth have all surged impressively.
This makes any minor fluctuation attract public attention. For instance, a significant month-on-month drop in premiums for April—a month that typically isn't a peak sales season for bancassurance in most years—was quickly amplified by those unfamiliar with the sector.
Undeniably, the integration of reporting and operations for bancassurance starting in 2023 temporarily adjusted the window for its renewed growth and reshaped the channel's fee logic. As the proportion of new policies and value contribution continues to rise, bancassurance is seen as having significantly lower costs than the agency channel, attracting a group of industry supporters.
However, the true protagonist of the bancassurance story has likely always been the banks.
No matter how much emphasis insurance companies place on it, how they express strategic determination, or how many resources they allocate, as long as banks do not change their selection logic, prioritization of interests, and channel attitudes, bancassurance will struggle to undergo real transformation.
Once bank attitudes change, the landscape will be reshuffled accordingly.
For example, after the integration of reporting and operations, banks re-selected their partners; major insurers entered the fray with their fees, brands, product capabilities, and service strengths; companies that previously thrived in bank channels could quickly be squeezed out; and even some second-tier leading companies might lose their original positions in certain key channels. The previously stable gap period in the solvency consumption cycle has also become tense.
From this perspective, bancassurance has never been merely an insurance channel issue but a resource reorganization between insurance companies and the banking system.
Who can enter bank channels, who can stay, and who can secure better branch resources and customer access ultimately depend on the bank's branch capabilities, customer structure, wealth management positioning, and group synergy relationships, as well as the position of different banks in the bancassurance market.
In other words, studying bancassurance itself is less about studying insurance and more about studying banks. The banking system has its own bancassurance landscape:
From state-owned large banks to joint-stock banks, and then to city commercial banks and rural commercial banks, the banking system itself is a far larger, more stratified, and more complex market than the insurance sector. Different banks have different customer bases, resource endowments, operational preferences, and cooperation logic, naturally forming their own distinct bancassurance patterns.
Only when a bank's own resource distribution, customer structure, and operational preferences are combined with an insurance company's channel strategy, product capabilities, and brand influence does the true underlying picture of the bancassurance market emerge.
From the bank's perspective, what kind of landscape is bancassurance?
Through a set of peer exchange data covering 13 major banks and mainstream bancassurance insurers, we can see the ranking of banks in the bancassurance market and the different channel strategies of major bancassurance players. Some facts are quite contrasting:
The channel layouts of some leading insurers do not entirely align with external stereotypes; the relationships between bank-affiliated insurers and their parent banks are not merely about "proximity advantages"; and the unique "insurance-affiliated bank" has already reached a significant depth within the Ping An bancassurance system, likely representing a trend.
Therefore, when examining bancassurance today, we should not only ask which insurance company sells more but also ask: through which banks are they selling? This is more important for insurance companies.
1. Bancassurance remains dominated by large banks.
The "dual postal" system (Postal Savings Bank of China and postal outlets) and the five major state-owned banks account for over 70% of the market. China Merchants Bank deserves particular attention.
Based on the sample data, the "dual postal" channels remain one of the most important channel resources in the bancassurance market.
In the sample covering the top seven insurers, major bank-affiliated insurers, and significant bancassurance players, the total new policy scale exceeds 330 billion yuan, broadly covering the main part of the bancassurance market. Among these, the new policy premiums from the "dual postal" channels are close to 100 billion yuan, accounting for approximately 30%.
This proportion remains significantly higher than that of the five major state-owned banks—Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Agricultural Bank of China, Bank of China, China Construction Bank, and Bank of Communications—and continues to validate the old saying in the bancassurance market: "He who controls the 'dual postal' channels controls the market."
The advantages of the "dual postal" system are not difficult to understand.
On one hand, the postal system has strong branch coverage capabilities in lower-tier markets, a solid customer base, and a wide reach.
On the other hand, the postal system inherently possesses strong grassroots service attributes, exerting long-term influence on customers with low-to-medium risk preferences, conservative savers, and county-level clients.
This is precisely where bancassurance products are most likely to achieve scale.
From the perspective of insurance companies, the "dual postal" channels remain the main battlefield that most insurers cannot avoid. Apart from China Post Life Insurance, a special entity, nearly half of the mainstream bancassurance insurers use the "dual postal" channels as their primary阵地 for regular-premium bancassurance, and over one-third treat them as key channels for single-premium bancassurance. Except for a few bank-affiliated insurers that have natural advantages with their parent banks, almost all companies have a presence in the "dual postal" channels.
However, it is worth noting that while the advantages of the "dual postal" system remain significant, its absolute share in the bancassurance market is no longer as exaggerated as in the past.
According to industry exchanges, as early as 2023, the "dual postal" channels once accounted for about 55% of the industry's new bancassurance premiums. That was during the peak period before the full implementation of the integration of reporting and operations and one of the most intense phases for new bancassurance policy scale.
Compared to that period of dominance by a single player, the current "dual postal" system has收敛 considerably.
Following the "dual postal" system is Agricultural Bank of China, also known for its extensive branch network and focus on serving "agriculture, rural areas, and farmers" and lower-tier markets. In the sample, Agricultural Bank of China's share of new bancassurance policies is less than 13%, although less than half of the "dual postal" share, it still ranks very high.
If we further combine the figures, the five major state-owned commercial banks—Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Agricultural Bank of China, Bank of China, China Construction Bank, and Bank of Communications—account for over 40% of the new policy scale in the sample. If the "dual postal" system is included in the广义 state-owned large bank system, the related channels of the six major state-owned banks already account for over 70% of the bancassurance market.
This means the bancassurance market is highly倾斜 toward large banks. Branches, customers, credit背书, wealth management scenarios, and long-term account relationships remain the most important infrastructure for insurance companies entering bank channels.
Among national joint-stock banks, China Merchants Bank remains the most noteworthy.
In terms of business volume, China Merchants Bank contributes about 6% to the regular-premium market and about 7% to the single-premium market in the sample, surpassing some state-owned large banks like Bank of China and Bank of Communications. Beyond scale, China Merchants Bank's value lies not only in premium numbers: what insurance companies truly highly value is its储备 of high-net-worth clients and its ability to manage them.
This is why, apart from its own Cigna & CMBC Life Insurance, Taikang Life Insurance's position in China Merchants Bank's channels is particularly值得关注. Exchange data shows that Taikang accounts for over 20% of China Merchants Bank's regular-premium business and about 16% of its single-premium business. This undoubtedly secures a strategic position.
In fact, China Merchants Bank is also one of the few national banks with a clear strategy for insurance.
2. Banks and Bank-Affiliated Insurers: Who Needs Whom and What Can They Do?
When discussing bancassurance, bank-affiliated insurers are always unavoidable.
For a long time, life insurance companies with bank控股股东 backgrounds have been seen as having天然主场 advantages in bancassurance. The logic is straightforward: since they are backed by a parent bank, they naturally have access to channels, customers, and branch resources.
However, from the perspective of the new policy market, this advantage is not as absolute as imagined.
After leading large insurers intensified their efforts in bancassurance, bank-affiliated insurers, while still稳稳占据 important positions in their parent banks' channels, do not stand out as prominently in the broader bancassurance market as外界 might想象.
Of course, from the banks' perspective, their own life insurance subsidiaries still mostly rank high in their parent banks' bancassurance:
For regular-premium policies, China Post Life Insurance accounts for nearly 28% of the new regular-premium policies in the "dual postal" channels; Cigna & CMBC Life Insurance accounts for nearly 34% in China Merchants Bank; Agricultural Bank of China's subsidiary reaches 31%; China Construction Bank's subsidiary is about 20%; Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and Bank of Communications' subsidiaries are both close to 26%; and Bank of China's subsidiary accounts for 8.77%,虽然不高, but still ranks second in its parent bank.
For single-premium policies, China Post Life Insurance accounts for over 21% in the "dual postal" channels; Cigna & CMBC Life Insurance accounts for about 53% of China Merchants Bank's new single-premium policies; China Construction Bank's subsidiary accounts for 33% in its parent bank; Industrial and Commercial Bank of China's subsidiary is about 20%; Bank of China's subsidiary is about 16%; and Bank of Communications' subsidiary is about 26%,基本上 all ranking as the top insurance suppliers in their respective parent banks.
The唯一 exception is Agricultural Bank of China's life insurance subsidiary.
Its new single-premium policies account for only 5% in its parent bank's channels, not even making the top five. This can be explained on one hand as the parent bank's support for the subsidiary's transition to regular-premium policies; but on the other hand, single-premium policies also mean income for bank branches. Given that single-premium transactions are relatively easier and sales are simpler, only a small portion of this branch income comes from their own life insurance company.
It's worth noting that while the entire bancassurance regular-premium premium has exceeded single-premium by about 30%, Agricultural Bank of China's bancassurance regular-premium and single-premium policies are roughly持平.
This足以说明 that parent banks' support for their life insurance subsidiaries is not weak. But it also说明 that parent bank channels do not naturally and entirely flow to their own life insurance subsidiaries, and even bank-affiliated insurers may not necessarily have the ability to支撑起 the significant分量 of their parent banks' various bancassurance businesses and income.
This leads to a more值得讨论的命题 for bank-affiliated insurers: What they truly need to answer is how to build external competitiveness or how to truly承接 their parent banks?
The latter is more likely:
For bank-affiliated insurers, integrating into the parent bank's ecosystem and becoming the insurance pillar within the bank's comprehensive financial system is their天然使命. They未必 need to seek business in更多 external bank channels like other insurers. As long as they can truly承接 the insurance business within the parent bank's system, that itself is a足够庞大的 market.
However, "承接" here is not just about turning the parent bank's insurance business into their own premiums.
For the parent bank, it needs not only its own life insurance product supplier but also a bank-affiliated insurer that truly understands the entire insurance market, comprehends the匹配关系 between different products, companies, and customer needs, and serves as the insurance capability hub for the parent bank in product screening, cooperation management, risk identification, and customer service.
In other words, the advantages of bank-affiliated insurers are真优势, but their天花板 is also真天花板.
If they can truly承接 their parent banks and become the capability hub for their parent banks' insurance business, they could certainly become an important pillar in the life insurance market. But if they can only承接 a portion of the premiums, or even only a small part in certain bancassurance businesses, the so-called主场优势 will be significantly diminished.
This makes the relationship between bank-affiliated insurers and their parent banks更值得观察.
3. Replicating the Bancassurance Status of Large Insurers: China Life's Wide Coverage vs. Ping An's Ping An Bank "Base"
If the bancassurance logic of bank-affiliated insurers revolves around their parent banks, then the bancassurance strategies of leading large insurers更能体现 channel capability itself.
While bank-affiliated insurers generally守住 their own turf but struggle to独占 parent bank resources, those with stronger products, brands, capital, teams, and channel operational capabilities are the ones truly capable of reshaping the bancassurance landscape.
As the top seven insurers陆续加码 bancassurance, especially as the two超级寿险 companies, China Life and Ping An, begin to replicate their market positions in bancassurance channels, the insurer格局 in the bancassurance market is undergoing significant changes.
Interestingly, the bancassurance strategies of leading insurers do not完全符合 external expectations of "strong-strong绑定." Many might assume that leading life insurers would naturally深度绑定 with leading state-owned large banks. However, sample data shows that giant insurers反而更倾向于分散式布局,广泛铺设网点和渠道, with单一银行渠道占比往往并不高.
Especially beyond mainstream national banks like Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Agricultural Bank of China, Bank of China, China Construction Bank, Bank of Communications, the "dual postal" system, and China Merchants Bank, Shanghai Pudong Development Bank, China Minsheng Bank, China CITIC Bank, Industrial Bank, China Everbright Bank, and Ping An Bank, large insurers are frequently found.
For example, among large insurers like China Life, China Pacific Insurance, and New China Life Insurance, bancassurance new policies outside mainstream banks占据自身的最大份额. Traditionally more focused on bancassurance, PICC Life also uses joint-stock banks like Shanghai Pudong Development Bank as its primary阵地 for regular-premium policies, while its main single-premium份额分布 in traditional large banks之外.
For the insurer with the largest bancassurance new policy scale, China Life, 32% of its new regular-premium policies and over 40% of its new single-premium policies come from channels outside state-owned large banks and major joint-stock banks.
According to the head of the wealth management department at a city commercial bank总行 in a southern province, their bank "primarily uses China Life products, some from New China Life, and很少 from other companies."
Guangfa Bank, under the China Life Group, is often外界认为 as an important bancassurance channel for China Life Insurance. However, based on 2025 data, China Life Insurance's bancassurance regular-premium premium was 26.478 billion yuan, while Guangfa Bank代理 China Life's first-year regular-premium premium was 1.86 billion yuan,占比并不高.
This从侧面说明 that China Life's bancassurance strategy is broader and more下沉 than外界想象.
When it comes to the bank most closely associated with insurance, Ping An Bank Co.,Ltd. is almost the first反应. For Ping An Life Insurance, Ping An Bank indeed支撑起 a unique bancassurance "base."
As the insurer with the largest regular-premium and second-largest scale in the current bancassurance market, Ping An Life Insurance derives over 34% of its regular-premium保费 from Ping An Bank, and about two-thirds of its single-premium business also comes from Ping An Bank.
Meanwhile, Ping An Bank几乎没有其他主要银保合作, with its bancassurance份额超过3% in peer data基本由平安体系贡献. This is截然相反 to other bank-affiliated insurers.
In fact, starting from the "Ping An Banker" initiative a few years ago, Ping An's布局 of bancassurance through Ping An Bank has been an公开秘密. Today, whether it's Ping An Life Insurance's own bancassurance performance or Ping An Bank's特殊位置 in the bancassurance market, both说明 that the comprehensive financial synergy model of bank + insurance is forming more具体的结果.
This is also Ping An's独特而巨大的优势.
Thus, it's不难看出 that China Life and Ping An represent two different bancassurance strategies for large insurers:
China Life relies on broader channel coverage capabilities; Ping An relies on deeper group synergy capabilities.
The former depends on brand, products, and广泛撒网 of channel networks; the latter depends on深连接 within the comprehensive financial system.
It's difficult to简单判断 which path is superior, but both说明 a fact: once真正的大公司 enter, the competition methods in bancassurance are being重新定义.
Epilogue: Bancassurance is becoming increasingly different.
In the past, when discussing bancassurance, the industry更习惯从保险公司角度出发: whose new policies are high, whose regular-premium business is strong, whose value rate is improving, whose channel fees are more advantageous.
These are当然重要.
But from the bank维度, there is another deeper主线 in the bancassurance market: the bank's own customer structure, branch capabilities, group relationships, and wealth management positioning are决定 how insurance companies can reach customers, which必然需要全面审视 the different禀赋 of banks and insurance companies across multiple dimensions, as well as the different连接方式 in bancassurance cooperation.
The importance of the "dual postal" system comes from lower-tier markets and branch infrastructure; the advantages of state-owned large banks come from庞大的客户与信用背书;
The特殊价值 of China Merchants Bank comes from its high-net-worth client management capabilities; the基本盘 of bank-affiliated insurers comes from their parent bank ecosystems;
China Life's广泛撒网体现 the channel coverage capabilities of a超级寿险 company; Ping An Bank's根据地折射出 the独特优势 of internal synergy within a comprehensive financial group.
Therefore, the next round of competition in bancassurance may not only be about whose products are more attractive or whose手续费 are more advantageous, but also about who更能理解 bank customers, bank branches, and the真实逻辑 within the banking system.
For insurance companies, bancassurance is never a simple sales channel. Behind it stands another更加庞大,复杂而分层 financial system.
Only by understanding banks can one truly understand bancassurance.
Even today, bancassurance remains primarily代理保费生意. Many所谓大单 are not the result of customer management but of存款,理财替代.
But when大公司 truly enter and大银行重新选择, the bancassurance格局 has already begun to change. The gears of bancassurance命运 are重新转动, and compared to a few years or over a decade ago, it has become越来越不一样.
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