Haitong: Life Insurance Premiums Increased in January and February, with Slowing Growth in Property Insurance

Guotai Haitong released a research report stating that life insurance premiums are expected to grow steadily in 2026, with the potential for a resonance between assets and liabilities driving profit improvement, maintaining an industry rating of "Buy". 1) On the liability side, the bank expects strong demand for residents' insurance savings to drive NBV growth in 2026, with the bancassurance channel expected to be an important growth driver; 2) On the asset side, the bank is optimistic about stable interest rates and the expected slow bullish market, which will drive insurance company investment service performance and profit improvement; 3) The bank believes that concerns from recent transactions are the core factors driving the divergence of insurance sector fundamentals profit improvement and stock prices, and sees opportunities for valuation repair in the insurance sector, particularly in insurance stocks with increased dividend yields. Guotai Haitong's key views are as follows: Life insurance premiums grew briskly in January and February 2026, with strong demand for insurance savings under the "transfer of deposits" trend. In January and February 2026, the insurance industry's cumulative premium income was RMB 1,642.2 billion, up 8.4% year-on-year. The original premium income of life insurance industry in January and February was RMB 1,310.8 billion, up 9.7% year-on-year. The premium income of life insurance, health insurance, and accident insurance was RMB 1,132.3 billion, RMB 172.4 billion, and RMB 6.1 billion respectively, up 10.9%, 3.1%, and -12.4% year-on-year. The bank expects rapid growth in life insurance premiums to benefit from strong demand for insurance savings under the "transfer of deposits" trend, while customer demand for protection products remains weak in the short term. The new premium income from policyholders' investment funds in January and February (mainly universal insurance) was RMB 238.9 billion, up 16.8% year-on-year. The bank expects this to be mainly driven by continued operations of universal insurance accounts during the period of insurance companies' opening red doors. In January and February, the new premium income of segregated accounts for investment-linked insurance was RMB 2.0 billion, up 1.7% year-on-year. The bank expects slow growth in investment-linked insurance amid market volatility. Property insurance premiums grew slowly in January and February 2026, with pressure on auto insurance but faster growth in non-auto insurance. In January and February 2026, the property insurance industry's cumulative original premium income was RMB 331.4 billion, up 3.5% year-on-year, down 1.2 percentage points from the same period in 2025; among them, the original premium income of auto insurance and non-auto insurance was RMB 141.8 billion and RMB 189.6 billion respectively, down 0.9% and up 7.0% year-on-year. The ratio of auto insurance to non-auto insurance premiums in property insurance was 42.8% and 57.2% respectively, with non-auto insurance premiums increasing by 1.9 percentage points year-on-year. Core drivers of growth in non-auto insurance business were liability insurance and health insurance, with year-on-year growth rates of 10.2% and 20.5% respectively. In February, the single-month original premium income of property insurance was RMB 120.5 billion, down 0.3% year-on-year (compared to 5.8% previously), with the original premium income of auto insurance at RMB 53.4 billion, down 1.1% year-on-year (compared to -0.8% previously). The original premium income of non-auto insurance was RMB 67.2 billion, up 0.3% year-on-year (compared to 11.1% previously), with agricultural insurance, health insurance, accident insurance, and liability insurance having year-on-year growth rates of -14.0% (compared to 1.4% previously), 10.2% (compared to 29.9% previously), -0.6% (compared to 10.3% previously), and -4.3% (compared to 17.9% previously) respectively. The bank expects the decline in agricultural insurance premiums to be mainly due to a slowdown in underwriting pace, the high growth in health insurance premiums to be mainly due to policy dividends from healthcare reform, and the slowdown in liability insurance growth to be mainly due to enhanced expense control under the "reform and regulation" trend. Risk Advisory: Downward long-term interest rates; Equity market fluctuations; Limited sustainability of customer demand.