China Life Cleared to Provide Small-Amount Life Insurance in Rural Areas

BEIJING, Sep 26, 2008 (A. M. Best via COMTEX) -- LFC | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating -- China Life Insurance Co. Ltd., the largest insurer in China, has been cleared to market small-amount life insurance policies in rural areas in nine provinces as testing points, said the China Insurance Regulatory Commission.

Those nine provinces include Shanxi, Heilongjiang, Jiangxi, Henan, Hubei, Guangxi, Sichuan, Gansu and Qinghai.

During the testing period, the insurer is allowed to provide nine different types of insurance policies including life insurance, personal accident insurance and traffic accident insurance, to both individuals and groups.

The insurance regulator also requires the insurer to expand its coverage as well as explore effective promotion plans to those testing districts.

The CIRC said the insurer is not only providing low-priced, simple and convenient insurance services to residents in rural areas, but also reporting relevant statistics and materials to the CIRC pursuant to its requirements.

Although the recent US financial crisis has hit the Asian markets, China Life and other listed Chinese insurers including Ping An Insurance (Group) Co., PICC Property and Casualty Co. Ltd., China Pacific Insurance (Group) Co. Ltd. and China Insurance International Holdings, confirmed that they did not hold any bonds of the biggest troubled U.S. companies, the CIRC said in a statement.

Both Liu Lefei, chief investment officer of China Life, and Sheng Ruisheng, spokesman of Ping An, earlier said in a report that their companies did not invest in any bonds issued by Lehman Brothers, American International Group and Merrill Lynch.

(By Rebecca Ng, Hong Kong news editor: Rebecca.Ng@ambest.com)

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