The release of annual reports by listed insurers is drawing to a close. New China Life Insurance Company Ltd. recently published its 2025 Annual Report, revealing total premium income of 195.871 billion yuan for the past year, a year-on-year increase of 14.9%. Net profit attributable to equity holders of the parent company reached 36.284 billion yuan, up 38.3% compared to the previous year. As 2026 marks the 30th anniversary of New China Life's establishment, a key question is whether the insurer can sustain growth from a high base. How will the bancassurance channel evolve, and what is the approach to Artificial Intelligence (AI)? During the 2025 Annual Results Presentation held on March 30, the company's management addressed these focal topics.
Management expressed confidence in maintaining stable growth. The annual report indicated that in 2025, New China Life achieved total premium income of 195.871 billion yuan, a 14.9% increase, and net profit attributable to parent company shareholders of 36.284 billion yuan, rising 38.3%. Total investment income amounted to 104.334 billion yuan, growing 30.9% year-on-year. Yang Yucheng, Chairman of New China Life, commented that the 2025 operating performance reached new heights on a high base, with several core indicators including total assets, total premiums, net profit, shareholder returns, and total market capitalization hitting record highs, representing the most outstanding report card since the company's founding. However, the liability side also faces growth pressure from this high baseline. Gong Xingfeng, President and Chief Financial Officer, acknowledged that the rapid growth in 2024 and 2025 established a high base, creating significant pressure, but affirmed the company's confidence in continuing stable growth from this elevated starting point.
This year, as New China Life celebrates its 30th anniversary, the focus is on the path forward. Gong Xingfeng stated the company will adhere to serving national strategies, practice a broad insurance perspective, and follow a path of high-quality development that enhances both scale and value while optimizing quality and structure. The company aims to build on the positive momentum of the past two years, concentrate on key areas for value growth, and strengthen channel transformation and development to solidify business capabilities.
Attention is also on new productive forces. Against the backdrop of a recovering capital market in 2025, New China Life's investment performance surpassed previous years, with a total investment return rate of 6.6%, up 0.8 percentage points year-on-year. However, the model of relying on equities in bull markets and bonds in bear markets is unsustainable under the dual pressures of "low interest rates and high volatility." Qin Hongbo, Vice President of New China Life, predicted that the short-term interest rate market would exhibit a volatile pattern in 2026, with narrowing credit spreads and widening term spreads. Short-end funding conditions are expected to remain relatively loose with greater certainty, while ultra-long-term bond volatility may increase, leading to a divergence in the trends of short and long-end interest rates. Qin Hongbo analyzed that in the era of low interest rates, achieving reasonable returns from fixed-income investments hinges on accurately gauging interest rate trends and identifying structural opportunities.
Beyond fixed income, the equity market remains crucial for stable returns. Qin Hongbo highlighted three focus areas for equity investments: first, industries with improving景气 (prosperity) and持续优化 (continuously optimizing) performance; second, sectors aligned with national strategic directions, particularly those related to new productive forces; and third, persistently promoting high-dividend investment strategies suitable for the low-interest-rate environment. Since the announcement in late November 2023 of a joint 50-billion-yuan Honghu Fund established by New China Life and China Life, the pilot program for long-term insurance fund investment in stocks via private securities funds has attracted market attention. Chen Yijiang, President of New China Asset Management, stated that New China Life actively responds to calls for medium- to long-term capital market participation. In collaboration with leading industry peers, three pilot funds have been established, with cumulative investment from New China Life reaching 46.25 billion yuan. These funds are beneficial for optimizing the company's own asset-liability management and contribute to the long-term, healthy, and stable development of the capital market.
Adherence to avoiding mis-selling was emphasized. New Business Value (NBV), a core metric for assessing a life insurer's profit potential, reached 9.842 billion yuan for New China Life in 2025, surging 57.4% year-on-year. This rapid NBV growth is attributed to持续提升 (continuously improving) productivity in both the agency and bancassurance channels. Jiang Han, a senior researcher at Pangoal Institution, noted that the enhancement in NBV for New China Life's life insurance business stems from substantial results from its agency channel reforms and strategic execution. Its专业化 (professional), 市场化 (market-oriented), and体系化 (systematic) reforms, along with multi-dimensional, in-depth changes to the product system, marketing models, and service体系 (system), have unleashed momentum and vitality.
For leading life insurers, the agency channel remains the ballast and fundamental base. Gong Xingfeng emphasized that the agency force are partners and entrepreneurs within the New China Life family, representing the most important companions. Their inherent connection with clients is natural, and they possess irreplaceable advantages in selling long-term, high-guarantee, complex products, serving as the core pillar for the company to navigate medium to long-term economic cycles. Therefore, the agency channel continues to be New China Life's most critical core channel. The company will, as always, allocate more resources and investment to cultivate and guide the development of this team. However, it was noted that since the beginning of 2026, New China Life has faced frequent penalties, with violations such as "providing policyholders benefits outside the insurance contract" exposing compliance weaknesses at grassroots branches and in channel management. At the earnings conference, Gong Xingfeng stressed the principles of compliant operations and putting customer interests first. He mentioned that the company would leverage the policy红利 (dividends) from participating health insurance, strengthen product suitability management, insist on selling suitable products to suitable customers, resolutely avoid sales misrepresentation, and enhance customer satisfaction.
The bancassurance channel is expanding its service ecosystem. Recent guidelines from the National Financial Regulatory Administration (NFRA) on strengthening bancassurance channel fee management have tightened the integration of reported and executed rates ("报行合一"). Tighter regulation coupled with intensifying industry competition has made the evolution of the bancassurance channel a key market focus. Wang Lianwen, Vice President of New China Life, predicted three trends: first, steady growth in overall scale, driven by持续多元化 (continuously diversifying) customer needs and rigid bank demand for intermediary income, suggesting稳健增长 (steady growth) in new bancassurance premiums, with positive signs already visible in Q1 market performance; second, significantly higher requirements from multiple stakeholders, including deeper implementation of "报行合一,"不断完善 (continuously improving) consumer protection mechanisms, heightened customer expectations for product and service experience, and banks' elevated demands for partners' comprehensive operational service capabilities, necessitating that the industry seek development within compliance and create value through development; third, an accelerating market分化 (differentiation), evolving towards an oligopolistic structure where the Matthew Effect is more pronounced, leading to a winner-takes-all scenario where insurers with high专业化程度 (professionalism) and strong asset-liability management capabilities will gain market advantage.
In response to these new trends in the bancassurance market, New China Life has defined its 2026 development path. Wang Lianwen outlined that the core strategy for bancassurance in 2026 is "advancing to promote stability, achieving progress amidst stability." This will be implemented through three key measures: further deepening cooperation with banks, jointly pursuing win-win development围绕 (centered on) the "five key financial areas"; further strengthening technology empowerment to enhance the team's professionalism and comprehensive service levels; and further expanding the service ecosystem to meet customers'多元化 (diverse) and whole-life-cycle insurance protection needs.
The company is pushing for robots to handle tasks, allowing employees to create value. Amid the global acceleration of AI development, the insurance industry is actively embracing AI. AI deployment is no longer an optional extra but a compulsory course determining an insurer's ability to navigate cycles. As Qin Hongbo asserted, AI is not the future tense but the present continuous tense. To translate this concept into tangible productivity, New China Life has pressed the accelerator on expanding AI applications. Regarding this expansion, Qin Hongbo stated that New China Life is developing seven major digital employees covering high-frequency areas such as training, customer service, group insurance, claims, policy maintenance, office functions, and investment advisory. Through the coordination of large and small models, the aim is to achieve productivity efficiency gains equivalent to over 3,000 full-time employees, realizing the goal of "letting robots do what robots should do, and allowing employees to engage in more valuable work." Qin Hongbo pointed out that with the advent of the AI era, technology empowerment has permeated every aspect of business and management, becoming the core engine for New China Life's high-quality development. The company will maintain strategic focus, investing in both people and technology, and under the guidance of the new "15th Five-Year Plan" for technology, strive to generate greater efficacy from AI within New China Life.
In the AI era, technology empowering the insurance industry represents not just technical innovation but a collaborative transformation of the industry ecosystem. Wang Peng, Associate Researcher at the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences, commented that deep AI integration into entire chains like claims, underwriting, and investment research can lead to business process re-engineering and precise risk control, driving high-quality development. Regarding user stickiness, digital employees provide 7x24 instant responses, covering high-frequency scenarios like claims and policy maintenance, thereby strengthening customer connections through极致 (ultimate) intelligent service experiences. Furthermore, having machines handle repetitive tasks can propel employees towards higher value-creation roles.
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