China Insurance Report Q3 2008

In Q308, the key change is that we have incorporated much more information about the companies that are operating across the regions of which each country is a part. We have sought to make it much clearer who is operating in each country and under what name(s). Perhaps equally importantly, our profiles make it plain which multinational companies are not operating in each country.

In the Asia Pacific, we profile 23 companies. These are AEGON, AIG, Allianz, Aviva, AXA, Cardif, Fortis, Generali, Groupama, HDI-Gerling, HSBC Insurance, ING Group, Liberty Mutual, Manulife, MetLife, Prudential Financial, Prudential plc, QBE, RSA, Sun Life Financial, The Hartford, Principal Financial Group and Zurich Financial Services.

We also look at various of the local firms that are active in the region: some of these companies rank, in terms of the premiums that they write, among the largest in the world.

For almost all the countries whose reports we are updating, we are also able to include actual data for calendar 2007: this was not the case for our Q208 reports.

In 2007, total premiums in the China rose by 24% to CNY700,000mn. Non-life premiums rose by 22% to CNY250,000mn, while Life premiums rose by 25% to CNY450,000mn.

Between now and the end of the forecast period, we expect that annual Non-life premiums will grow by CNY148,577mn, while annual Life premiums should increase by CNY155,301mn. Growth in Non-life premiums should be driven by the general growth in nominal GDP plus a rise in Non-life penetration from the current level of 1.04% to 1.10%. Growth in Life premiums should be driven by the change in the overall population and a rise in life density from US$44.36 to US$75.00 per capita.

BMIs Insurance Business Environment Rating is 62.3.