The National Financial Regulatory Administration officially released the insurance industry's operating data for June 2026 on July 24, providing a complete picture of the sector's core performance for the first half of the year.
Overall, the industry's total original insurance premium income for the first half of the year reached 3.86 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 3.25%. Claims and benefit payments totaled 1.40 trillion yuan, up 3.82% from the same period last year. As of the end of June, the industry's total assets stood at 43.86 trillion yuan, an increase of 2.54 trillion yuan from the start of the year, continuing its trend of scale expansion.
Analyzing the half-year operational trends, the insurance industry's overall scale is maintaining steady expansion, but the growth pace is characterized by a strong start followed by a slowdown, with clear divergence between different segments. Influenced by multiple factors such as a high base from the previous year, the implementation of new post-630 product regulations, and channel standardization reforms, the growth rate of the life insurance sector has decelerated in stages. In contrast, the property and casualty insurance sector has shown a counter-cyclical recovery, with auto insurance emerging from a downturn and non-auto insurance continuing to expand. This pattern of one sector cooling while the other warms is the most authentic reflection of the industry's high-quality transformation.
A Shift in Gear for Life Insurance Under a High Base
As the fundamental pillar of premium income, life insurance still supports the majority of the industry's volume. In the first half of this year, life insurance achieved original premium income of 3.09 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 4.32%, contributing over 80% of the entire industry's premiums.
The cumulative data for the period maintained positive growth, but the industry's growth pace has noticeably slowed, displaying a typical pattern of strong performance in the first half of the year and weaker growth in the second. The first quarter's strong start, driven by the "opening door" period, supported the industry's peak. Entering the second quarter, with the deepening of the "unified reporting and pricing" policy and a rising market base, monthly premium income turned negative year-on-year. The decline in June narrowed slightly compared to May.
Looking at life insurance companies, their original premium income for the first six months was 2.87 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 3.65%. Life insurance premiums specifically were 2.39 trillion yuan, up 4.65% year-on-year. From a cumulative data perspective, growth remains positive. However, the original premium volume for life insurance companies in June was 478.8 billion yuan, a 2.5% decrease year-on-year.
In terms of product structure, life insurance remains the bedrock, with long-term savings demand continuing to be released. The scale of accident insurance is continuing its contraction trend. Growth in health insurance is sluggish, and the industry is re-evaluating its pricing, risk control, and service models for health products.
At the product level, the direction of the industry's transformation is already very clear. With the implementation of new rules for dividend insurance demonstration interest rates and the maintenance of low guaranteed interest rates for traditional life insurance, various insurers are actively reducing high capital-consumption traditional fixed-income savings products. Dividend-type life insurance is gradually becoming the mainstay of bancassurance and single-premium and regular-premium new business. According to data from the China Insurance Association, the research value of the guaranteed interest rate for ordinary life insurance in the second quarter rebounded to 1.94%, still some distance from the 2.0% ceiling. This suggests there is no basis for lowering the pricing ceiling in the short term, further compressing the space for market-driven hype over product suspensions.
Changes at the channel level are also entering a critical phase. The bancassurance channel, as a core battleground for savings products, is seeing ongoing regulatory rectification of fee irregularities to eliminate disorderly competition. The extensive model of relying on high fees to boost scale is no longer viable. The personal agent channel continues to undergo a process of purification and quality improvement, weeding out inefficient agents and focusing on high-performing teams. The sales model reliant on short-term policy stimuli to drive transactions is gradually exiting the market. Current industry competition is no longer about speed or scale, but about capabilities in asset-liability management, long-term customer relationship management, and compliance service provision.
Property and Casualty Insurance: Health Insurance Surges, Auto Insurance Hits Bottom and Rebounds
In contrast to the slowdown in life insurance growth, the property and casualty insurance sector demonstrated greater resilience in the first half of 2026. The original premium income for property and casualty insurance companies in the first half was 984.6 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 2.08%.
Auto insurance, the largest line of business in the P&C sector, recorded premiums of 450.4 billion yuan in the first half, a mere 0.02% decrease year-on-year, essentially achieving stabilization. Notably, the growth rate of auto insurance premiums turned positive in June alone, signaling that the persistently sluggish auto insurance market has officially hit bottom and is recovering. Multiple factors, including the rising penetration rate of new energy vehicles, the implementation of refined pricing reforms for auto insurance, and the easing of price wars, are collectively driving the industry out of its downturn.
Industry insiders widely believe that the auto insurance industry has long since exited its high-growth cycle, and a future explosion in scale is unlikely. The logic of competition has been completely rewritten: from the past focus on capturing market share through price and fees, it has shifted to a comprehensive competition in underwriting risk control, claims services, digital operations, and customer experience. With the full implementation of the "unified reporting and pricing" policy, the disorderly internal competition in auto insurance has been effectively curbed. The ability to manage the combined ratio now directly determines the profitability and survival space of each P&C institution.
The true core driver of growth in the P&C sector is the expansion of diversified non-auto insurance lines. Liability insurance, inclusive health insurance, agricultural insurance, and corporate property insurance continue to expand, becoming the main force driving industry growth. Concurrently, under continuous policy guidance, specialized insurance types such as catastrophe insurance, green insurance, and industry-specific supply chain insurance are developing rapidly, opening up new growth avenues for the industry. For smaller P&C institutions, the necessary path to differentiated growth involves avoiding the red ocean of auto insurance competition, deeply cultivating vertical industry scenarios, and developing specialized non-auto insurance products.
Looking through the half-year operational data, the long-term development logic of the insurance industry is clear despite short-term fluctuations. The industry is fully transitioning from a scale-oriented approach to a value-oriented one. Asset-liability matching remains the core challenge for the entire industry, channel reforms are entering a critical phase, and the value of protection business is returning to the forefront. The growth fluctuations caused by short-term base effects are cyclical phenomena and will not change the industry's long-term development trajectory.
For insurance professionals, accepting the new normal of slower industry growth is essential. The era of relying on product suspension hype, chasing policy benefits, and profiting from information asymmetry is definitively over. The future core competencies lie in professional skills for family risk planning, retirement financial allocation, and long-term asset management. As dividend insurance becomes the market mainstream, compliantly explaining product return characteristics and truthfully disclosing non-guaranteed benefits are fundamental baseline requirements for sustainable business operations.
For ordinary consumers, there is no need to over-interpret the fluctuations in industry growth rates. The total assets of the insurance industry are growing steadily, compensation payments are continuously increasing, and the overall operational foundation of the industry is solid with controllable risks. When purchasing insurance, consumers should distinguish between fixed-income traditional products and floating-return dividend-type savings products, and view the differences in returns rationally. For protection-type products, priority should be given to the practicality of coverage and claims service quality, discarding the incorrect approach of merely comparing prices. In a prolonged low-interest-rate environment, insurance, as a stable long-term asset allocation tool, still possesses irreplaceable planning value.
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