LONDON, Dec 5 (Reuters)—China's share of the world insurance market has quadrupled in the last 10 years and is set for further growth, helped by a strong economy and better regulation, reinsurance broker Aon Benfield said.
With annual life and non-life insurance premiums of $226 billion, China accounts for almost four percent of the world market, up from 1 percent in 2001, Aon Benfield said in a report published on Monday.
“Given the still low insurance penetration rate and China's comparative economic outlook, this share can only be expected to grow,” said Henry To, chief executive of Aon Benfield's China unit.
However, Aon said the development of China's catastrophe insurance market had been slow despite the country's increasing exposure to natural hazards.
This could be remedied by a national natural disaster risk transfer program to be set up under the Chinese regulatory authority's latest five-year development plan, the broker said.
Some western insurers attracted by China's strong growth potential have begun to scale back their presence in the country or even leave, frustrated by high regulatory hurdles and stiff competition, credit rating agency Moody's said last week.
Foreign insurers controlled an “inappreciable” 3.7 percent of the Chinese life insurance market, and just 1.1 percent of the non-life market as of September 2011, Moody's said.
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