The 2025 annual reports from seven listed insurance companies collectively depict an industry landscape characterized by "leading players stabilizing the foundation while smaller and medium-sized insurers seek breakthroughs through differentiation."
Looking at the entire insurance industry in 2025, the persistent low-interest-rate cycle and the full implementation of new "compliance in reporting and operations" regulations have fundamentally reshaped the industry's development logic. The extensive growth model focused on scale expansion is fading into history, with value enhancement and efficiency optimization becoming the core themes of industry competition. The 2025 annual reports of seven listed insurers - China Life Insurance, Ping An Insurance, PICC Group, China Pacific Insurance, New China Life Insurance, Sunshine Insurance, and ZA Online - illustrate this industry-wide panorama. Together, these seven entities achieved a combined net profit attributable to parent company shareholders of 432.7 billion yuan. The life insurance segment generally reported double-digit high growth in new business value, while the property and casualty insurance segment showed further optimization in business structure and combined ratio, marking the industry's entry into a deep-water zone of high-quality transformation. Among them, Sunshine Insurance, representing private insurers, achieved breakthroughs in specific niches through precise strategic focus and efficient execution capabilities, providing a reference path for the transformation of small and medium-sized insurers.
Industry Overview: Value and Efficiency Become Core Competitiveness
In 2025, driven by multiple external constraints and internal reforms, China's insurance industry completed a profound transformation from "scale orientation" to "value orientation." According to data from the National Financial Regulatory Administration, the industry's total original premium income reached 6.12 trillion yuan for the full year, a year-on-year increase of 7.8%, with the growth rate rising by 1.2 percentage points compared to the previous year. The industry overall demonstrated a development trend of "steady progress with improved quality and efficiency."
Looking at the overall performance of the seven listed insurers, leading players, leveraging their comprehensive financial advantages, channel积淀, and economies of scale, continued to solidify the industry's foundation, with profitability steadily improving. Smaller and medium-sized insurers, by focusing on specific niches, optimizing business structures, and enhancing refined management levels, sought breakout opportunities amid intense competition, further revealing a pattern of industry differentiation.
Notably, the industry's development in 2025 exhibited two distinct characteristics: First, a significant increase in the new business value of the life insurance segment, with the value growth trend of the bancassurance channel becoming increasingly evident, and the proportion of savings-type products like participating insurance continuing to rise. Second, in the property and casualty insurance segment, against the backdrop of sustained stability in auto insurance and the expansion of non-auto insurance, further balanced optimization of the business structure was achieved through quality and efficiency improvements, shifting industry competition from "price wars" to "service wars" and "quality wars."
Simultaneously, improved investment returns driven by increased equity allocations became an important support for insurers' profit growth. The ongoing impact of the implementation of new accounting standards further prompted insurers to focus on core businesses and optimize their asset-liability structures.
Life Insurance Segment: Value Leads Growth, Channel Transformation Yields Results
In 2025, the life insurance businesses of six listed insurers demonstrated robust growth, showcasing strong recovery momentum post-industry transformation. In terms of premium scale, leading insurers still dominated, while smaller and medium-sized insurers showed impressive growth rates, forming a pattern of "steady growth for leaders, fast running for smaller players."
Specifically, China Life's total premiums reached 729.887 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 8.7%, ranking first in the industry. Ping An Life Insurance, leveraging its comprehensive financial ecosystem advantage, achieved premium income of 661.438 billion yuan, up 5% year-on-year. CPIC Life achieved scale premiums of 295.855 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 12.7%, with growth steadily accelerating. New China Life achieved total premiums of 195.871 billion yuan for the full year, a surge of 14.9% year-on-year, showing strong growth momentum. PICC Life, under PICC Group, accelerated its transformation, achieving original premium income of 125.97 billion yuan, up 18.8% year-on-year, with both scale and value improving. Sunshine Life, as a representative private insurer, achieved total premiums of 102.61 billion yuan, a growth rate of 27.5% year-on-year, leading the six life insurers.
Compared to the growth in premium scale, the more core breakthrough for the life insurance industry in 2025 was the significant increase in New Business Value (NBV). The profit quality of related businesses at all six life insurers improved markedly, signifying that the life insurance transformation is moving from strategic implementation to delivering tangible results.
Data shows that China Life achieved a net profit attributable to parent company shareholders of 154.078 billion yuan in 2025, a substantial increase of 44.1% year-on-year. Its one-year new business value was 45.752 billion yuan, up 35.7% year-on-year, achieving success in both value and profitability. Ping An Life and Health Insurance achieved a net profit of 112.329 billion yuan, up 22% year-on-year, with new business value surging 29.3% year-on-year, as the synergistic effects of its comprehensive finance strategy continued to be released. CPIC Life achieved a new business value of 18.609 billion yuan, up 40.1% year-on-year, and a net profit attributable to parent company shareholders of 42.165 billion yuan, up 17.7% year-on-year, indicating significant results from channel transformation and product optimization. New China Life's net profit attributable to parent company shareholders reached 36.3 billion yuan, a sharp increase of 38.3% year-on-year, while its new business value reached 9.8 billion yuan, surging 57.4% year-on-year, with its growth rate among the top tier of leading insurers. PICC Life's new business value was 8.229 billion yuan, a comparable increase of 64.5% year-on-year, achieving a net profit of 11.774 billion yuan during the same period, as transformation results gradually materialized. Sunshine Life achieved a net profit of 6.197 billion yuan, up 8.5% year-on-year, and a new business value of 7.64 billion yuan, up 48.2% year-on-year, maintaining stable profitability alongside rapid scale expansion.
In 2025, driven by the new "compliance in reporting and operations" regulations, the life insurance channel landscape underwent profound changes. The bancassurance channel shifted from contributing scale to delivering value, while the agency channel focused on improving quality and efficiency, with continuous optimization of the channel structure.
Against the backdrop of industry-wide pressure on bancassurance channel expenses, insurers focused on refined management to enhance channel efficiency. Among them, Sunshine Life's per capita productivity in bancassurance activities reached 148,000 yuan, ranking high among the six listed insurers, reflecting its advantage in refined channel management. Leading insurers, leveraging deep cooperation with banks, continued to expand the value contribution of the bancassurance channel. Savings-type products like participating insurance and annuity insurance rapidly reached customers through bancassurance, becoming the core driver of new business value growth.
Regarding the agency channel, insurers firmly advanced transformation, focusing on "floating-return + protection" product combinations, leading to continuous improvement in customer stickiness and business quality. For example, related products in Sunshine Life's agency channel accounted for over 50% of new single premiums, with 13-month and 25-month premium persistence rates reaching 97.1% and 95.5%, respectively. Furthermore, insurers improved agent professionalism and sales efficiency through agent team quality enhancement and digital empowerment, driving the agency channel's transformation from "manpower-driven" to "capability-driven."
Property and Casualty Insurance Segment: Business Structure Generally Optimized Underwriting Quality Comprehensively Improved
The P&C insurance track in 2025 remained in an environment focused on managing existing business well and seeking breakthroughs in new growth. Last year, the overall premium income of the property insurance industry was approximately 1.76 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 3.92%. Breaking down the two major types of insurance, auto insurance, as the foundational business, has entered an era of steady progress. Last year, auto insurance premiums grew by 2.99%, with new energy vehicle commercial insurance surging by 33.88%, and written premiums during the reporting period reaching 157.61 billion yuan. Meanwhile, non-auto insurance premium income was 816.1 billion yuan, up 5% year-on-year, with health insurance, agricultural insurance, and liability insurance showing relatively faster growth.
In 2025, the P&C insurance companies under five listed insurers - PICC P&C, Ping An P&C, CPIC P&C, Sunshine P&C, and ZA Online - generally exhibited the commonality of "auto insurance stabilizing the foundation, non-auto insurance expanding the space." It can be said that leading P&C insurers are at the focus of high-quality development.
The combined premium income of the five insurers in 2025 reached 1,184.069 billion yuan. Among them, PICC P&C grew 3.3% year-on-year to 555.777 billion yuan; Ping An P&C grew 6.6%, with premium income reaching 343.168 billion yuan; CPIC P&C premiums increased to 201.499 billion yuan; Sunshine P&C's annual original premium income was 47.89 billion yuan, showing continuous year-on-year growth; and ZA Online's premium scale was 35.735 billion yuan, up 6.66% year-on-year.
The combined ratio was basically optimized across the board, accompanied by a substantial increase in underwriting profit. Ping An P&C showed the most optimization in its combined ratio, improving by 1.5 percentage points year-on-year to 96.8%, with underwriting profit surging 96.2% year-on-year to 10.717 billion yuan. CPIC P&C's combined ratio was 97.5%, down 1.1 percentage points year-on-year, with underwriting profit skyrocketing 81.0% to 4.836 billion yuan. ZA Online's combined ratio was 95.8%, improving by 1.1 percentage points year-on-year, with underwriting profit increasing 42.5% to 1.412 billion yuan. PICC P&C's combined ratio was 97.6%, down 0.9 percentage points year-on-year, with underwriting profit surging 75.6% to 12.443 billion yuan. Sunshine P&C, after excluding surety insurance business, achieved a underwriting combined ratio of 98.9%, optimizing by 1.0 percentage point year-on-year, and realized an underwriting profit of 487 million yuan.
Within auto insurance business, Sunshine P&C and Ping An P&C saw their underwriting profits double, reaching 480 million yuan and 9.496 billion yuan, respectively. PICC P&C's auto insurance underwriting profit was 14.258 billion yuan, up 53.6% year-on-year. CPIC P&C's auto insurance underwriting profit was 4.817 billion yuan, a sharp increase of 80.28% year-on-year. Although auto insurance remains the largest line in the P&C industry, the industry is accelerating its transition towards new energy vehicle insurance. For instance, ZA Online's new energy vehicle insurance premiums surged 206.2% year-on-year; Ping An P&C's new energy vehicle insurance premiums reached 52.480 billion yuan, up 39.0% year-on-year; and the proportion of new energy vehicle insurance premiums at Sunshine P&C increased by 3.2 percentage points year-on-year.
Accident and short-term health insurance became highlights within the non-auto business. PICC P&C's accident and health insurance original premiums were 107.585 billion yuan, up 6.4% year-on-year; the combined ratio was 99.0%, down 0.5 percentage points year-on-year, with underwriting profit soaring 154.1% to 615 million yuan. Ping An P&C's accident and health insurance premiums grew 25.2% to 24.232 billion yuan. Sunshine P&C's premiums for this business were 7.79 billion yuan, up 8.7% year-on-year, with an underwriting combined ratio of 95.6%, achieving an underwriting profit of 290 million yuan. ZA Online's total premiums for its health ecosystem were 12.682 billion yuan, an increase of 22.7% year-on-year.
Last October, regulatory authorities explicitly required the implementation of "compliance in reporting and operations" for non-auto insurance, proposing strengthened rate management, strict use of policy terms and rates, optimized assessment mechanisms, and improved premium income management. The policy has played a positive role in optimizing the underwriting combined ratio for the P&C insurance industry. China Chengxin International expects that in 2026, regulators will strictly enforce "compliance in reporting and operations" for non-auto insurance, rigorously compressing fee space and standardizing competition order, leading to a tendency for further improvement in the industry's combined ratio.
Investment Competition: Substantial Increase in Equity Assets Total Investment Income Rises Across All 7 Insurers
In 2025, structural opportunities in the equity market became the key differentiator for investment performance. While capturing market beta returns, both large and small companies also relied on precise asset allocation to generate alpha returns.
Looking across the industry, by the end of 2025, the insurance industry's stock allocation balance reached 3.73 trillion yuan, accounting for 9.7% of the total funds utilized. This ratio marked the highest level since the regulatory system began disclosing the data in the second quarter of 2022.
From the perspective of the annual reports, the seven listed insurers - China Life, Ping An Insurance, PICC Group, CPIC, New China Life, Sunshine Insurance, and ZA Online - were consistent with the industry, all showing substantial growth in their equity investment portions. China Life's proportion of equity-type financial assets was 22.57%, an increase of 3.38 percentage points year-on-year. PICC Group's equity investment ratio was 22.3%, with stock investments of 166.235 billion yuan, up 175.9% year-on-year. Ping An Insurance's stock investment ratio was 14.8%, reaching 958.089 billion yuan, nearly doubling year-on-year. CPIC's stock assets reached 337.654 billion yuan, an increase of 32.38% year-on-year. New China Life's stock investments were 216.452 billion yuan, up 19.7% year-on-year, while fund investments were 172.574 billion yuan, up 36.6% year-on-year. Sunshine Insurance's equity-type financial assets grew 24.4% year-on-year to 136.431 billion yuan. ZA Online's proportion of stocks and equity-type funds was 9.1%, an increase of 3.1 percentage points year-on-year.
Coupled with insurers firmly holding fixed-income assets as the base of their portfolios, the total investment income of all seven listed insurers achieved double-digit growth in 2025. China Life's total investment income was 387.694 billion yuan, up 25.8% year-on-year. PICC Group's total investment income was 92.323 billion yuan, up 12.4% year-on-year. Ping An Insurance's total investment income was 234.251 billion yuan, up 13.5% year-on-year. CPIC's total investment income was 141.634 billion yuan, up 17.6% year-on-year. New China Life's total investment income was 104.334 billion yuan, up 30.9% year-on-year. Sunshine Insurance's total investment income was 25.23 billion yuan, a significant increase of 27.1% year-on-year. ZA Online's total investment income from domestic insurance funds was 2.124 billion yuan, up 59.1% year-on-year.
Executives from multiple insurers considered equity assets the key differentiator for investment performance in 2025. Liu Hui, Vice President and Board Secretary of China Life, stated that equity investment is the key to enhancing returns, fixed-income investment is the "ballast stone" for stabilizing returns, and alternative investments are the growth pole for diversifying returns. In 2025, China Life actively promoted the entry of medium- and long-term funds into the market, seized favorable market opportunities, strategically increased its equity allocation by 5 percentage points, with the overall equity investment scale exceeding 1.2 trillion yuan. Particularly, it focused on deploying in technology stocks representing the direction of new productive forces. Investing in line with historical trends and keeping pace with the times were cited as primary reasons for the performance improvement.
Cai Zhiwei, Vice President of PICC Group, stated that the group would, on one hand, adhere to seeking progress while maintaining stability, continuously paying attention to the allocation of OCI high-dividend stocks; on the other hand, it would focus on the growth investment opportunities inherent in the outline of the "15th Five-Year Plan," strengthening research on key industries and sectors, and reasonably planning TPL stock allocations. The focus is on building a balanced equity investment portfolio with long-term stable performance.
Su Gang, Vice President, Chief Investment Officer, and Chief Financial Officer of CPIC, stated at the earnings briefing that the company would adhere to strategic asset allocation based on the characteristics of insurance liabilities, actively enhance cross-cycle asset allocation capabilities, increase equity asset allocation appropriately within the company's risk tolerance under the low-interest-rate environment, and actively seize structural opportunities in the market. In the long term, driven by both insurance and investment, CPIC can maintain good financial stability across different cycles.
Qin Hongbo, Vice President of New China Life, expressed firm confidence in the medium- to long-term development prospects of China's capital market, focusing on three main investment themes: first, focusing on industries with upward景气度 and continuously optimized performance; second, focusing on industries aligned with national strategic directions, especially those related to new productive forces; third, continuously promoting the high-dividend investment strategy in the low-interest-rate environment.
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