Statistics from the China Insurance Assets Registration and Trading System reveal that insurance asset management companies registered 32 asset-backed plan products in the first half of the year, with an aggregate scale of 114.216 billion yuan.
Comparative Analysis of Registration Figures
Compared to the same period last year, the number of asset-backed plans registered by these institutions decreased by 6, representing a year-on-year decline of 15.79%. The total registered scale saw a more significant drop of 36.58% year-on-year.
Industry insiders point to a dual squeeze from the "asset side" and the "yield side" as the core reason for the reduction in insurance ABS registrations. On one hand, persistently declining interest rates have caused the risk-return profile of insurance asset-backed plans to converge with that of standardized fixed-income products, leading to lower yield expectations and naturally reducing insurers' allocation appetite. On the other hand, the supply of high-quality underlying assets in the market has tightened. There are fewer projects offering stable cash flows with yields that adequately compensate for risk premiums. This is particularly true for traditional infrastructure and real estate assets, where supply has narrowed. Furthermore, a gradual shift towards underlying assets like consumer finance and micro-loans—characterized by being "small-amount and dispersed"—has resulted in smaller individual deal sizes, contributing to the overall year-on-year decline in new issuance scale.
Historical Context and Recent Trends
Often referred to as the "insurance version of ABS," asset-backed plan business involves professional management institutions like insurance asset managers establishing plans. These plans use cash flows generated from underlying assets to support payments and issue beneficiary certificates to qualified investors like insurance institutions. Insurance asset management companies primarily conduct this business through the China Insurance Assets Registration and Trading System. The product category has developed over many years, with registration scale expanding significantly, especially following the release of relevant regulatory notices.
A review of data shows that from 2022 to 2024, insurance asset management companies registered a total of 262 asset-backed plan products, with annual numbers increasing consecutively: 66, 93, and 103. Starting in 2025, the number of such products initiated began to decline, with 96 registered for the full year.
An industry expert explains that the cooling in registration numbers is an inevitable result of the sector reassessing the investment value of ABS. The previous surge in enthusiasm over a short two-to-three year period was essentially an attempt by insurance funds to seek higher yields to match long-term liabilities amid an "asset shortage." At that time, shortly after the market moved away from implicit guarantees, ABS products, with their structured design offering stable senior tranche returns and a yield advantage over ordinary credit bonds, became a key tool for insurance asset managers to fill yield gaps. However, as market participants rapidly increased, the yield spreads on ABS products have been continuously compressed. The yields on many senior tranche products are now basically in line with, or in some high-quality cases even slightly lower than, those of high-grade credit bonds with similar maturities, significantly reducing their cost-effectiveness.
This slowdown has continued into 2026. Data indicates that in the first half of 2026, insurance asset management companies registered 32 asset-backed plan products, 6 fewer than the same period last year, with a registered scale of 114.216 billion yuan, down 36.58% year-on-year.
Underlying Market Factors
This trend is the result of multiple market factors and internal industry adjustments. The direct trigger for the H1 decrease was the slower-than-expected pace of macroeconomic recovery since the start of the year, leading to an overall contraction in the supply of high-quality underlying assets. Consequently, the number of projects matching insurance funds' risk appetite naturally decreased. Insurance asset managers maintain extremely strict standards in asset selection, with requirements for cash flow stability of underlying assets and the completeness of credit enhancement measures far exceeding those of other asset management institutions. In the first half, insufficient project reserves in traditional ABS underlying asset sectors like real estate and infrastructure, coupled with regional credit risk events leading to tighter asset准入 standards by institutions, directly reduced the number of feasible projects.
Additionally, a window of declining interest rates in the first half of last year prompted many insurance institutions to rush and batch-submit ABS projects before rates fell further, inflating the base for the same period last year. In contrast, interest rates generally maintained a narrow range of fluctuation in the first half of this year, removing the incentive for institutions to rush issuance, which also contributed to the noticeable year-on-year decline.
Shift Towards Alternative Investment Tools
It is important to note that while insurance funds have slowed their pace in registering asset-backed plan products, against the backdrop of declining interest rates and pressure on returns from traditional fixed-income assets, diversified tools such as public REITs, hold-to-maturity ABS, and Pre-REITs remain core focal points for insurance funds to address the "asset shortage." For example, in 2025, six insurance institutions, including工银安盛人寿 and泰康养老保险, participated as strategic investors, collectively receiving an allocation of 38.5 million units in a specific REIT, representing about 7.7% of the total offering and an allocation amount of approximately 105 million yuan.
These tools can not only partially fill the allocation gap left by non-standard assets but, through the dual-driver logic of "activating existing stock + incubating new increments," have become key pieces for insurance funds to complete the "investment-financing-management-exit"闭环.
Growing Appeal of Public REITs
From the perspective of the current external environment, public REITs and inter-institutional REITs trading mechanisms are highly likely to become popular channels for insurance funds in the coming years. Firstly, public REITs possess the dual income attributes of "fixed-income-like dividends + equity-like asset appreciation," offering stable cash flows with some growth potential. Their yield range of 4% to 6% is highly attractive to insurance funds. Secondly, the inter-institutional REITs market is in a period of rapid expansion, with its scale有望突破千亿元 within the year. Insurance funds have a high proportion and broad participation, enabling the conversion of past non-standard存量 business from trusts, private equity funds, and direct equity investments into standardized allocations, achieving a "non-standard to standard" shift. Thirdly, ongoing policy efforts, including the advancement of commercial real estate REITs pilots and明确 support in national plans for infrastructure and green/low-carbon sectors, provide a rich source of underlying assets for REITs.
In this view, REITs have formed a favorable triangular balance in terms of yield, liquidity, and policy compatibility, aligning better with the current core demands of insurance funds.
The characteristics of public REITs match the needs of insurance funds most closely. The underlying assets of public REITs are mostly infrastructure projects with highly stable cash flows, such as toll roads, industrial parks, and affordable rental housing. Their income sources include stable dividends and potential asset appreciation, with durations typically over 10 years, perfectly matching the long-term liability durations of insurance funds. As China's REITs market continues to expand, the types of underlying assets are constantly enriching, and related配套 rules are gradually improving, leading to significantly enhanced liquidity compared to previous non-listed equity-like products. Concurrently, the policy level持续鼓励 insurance fund participation in public REITs investment, with corresponding supportive policies regarding allocation ratio limits and risk provisioning standards. For insurance institutions needing to continuously optimize asset-liability duration matching and stabilize long-term investment returns, public REITs offer the multiple advantages of policy support, stable收益, and duration matching, naturally making them a key focus for布局 in the coming years.
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