Frontier hot spot: why do foreign insurance companies replace generals in a centralized way

□ Reporter Zhang Jin

In the context of changing global economic situation and deep transformation of the insurance industry, the flow of insurance talents is accelerating. Among them, the turnover of the core senior management team of foreign-funded and joint venture insurance companies has attracted much attention from the market.

(Related data drawing)

Recently, Allianz Life Insurance, CITIC Prudential Life Insurance and Sinochem Insurance have successively changed their generals. Insiders pointed out that in the past decade, foreign capital has increased its presence in China's insurance market, especially in Beijing, Shanghai and other regions, where the market share of foreign insurance companies has reached 20%. The continuous exchange of foreign capital and joint venture insurance companies will show that their distribution in China is further adjusted and deepened.

Several foreign-funded and joint venture insurance enterprises welcome the new leader

Since 2023, the insurance industry has entered a period of intensive change of senior executives, and senior executives of foreign-funded and joint venture insurance companies have also frequently "changed their blood".

Recently, CITIC Prudential Life Insurance, Sinochem Insurance and other old joint venture insurance companies have made personnel adjustments in their core teams. On June 5, CITIC Prudential Life announced that Li Kangzhong resigned as the chairman of the company for personal reasons; On June 16, Zhonghong Insurance announced that Zhang Kai was no longer a director and general manager of the company, and Wu Xiaoyong was appointed as the temporary head.

What is more interesting to the market is that Allianz Life Insurance, the first life insurance company in China to transform from a joint venture to a wholly foreign-owned company, has recently welcomed a new female general. According to the official website of Allianz Asia Pacific, Xu Chunjun was transferred to the position of Allianz Asia Pacific Senior Advisor and no longer served as the general manager of Allianz Life Insurance; CUI Cui (Cui Cui) is proposed to be the general manager of Allianz Life, which will take effect after his qualification is approved by the regulatory authority. According to public data, Cui Cui has 22 years of experience in global management and 15 years of experience in insurance industry, and once served Zurich Insurance Group. In 2016, Cui Cui joined Allianz and successively worked in several insurance companies in Allianz Group.

Before Cui Cui, Anusha Thavarajah was appointed as the chairman of Allianz Life Insurance, becoming the new "female leader" of the company.

Some analysts believe that in China's insurance industry, it is rare for "generals" to be women, which may be related to the European emphasis on "women's leadership" in recent years. From the perspective of work experience, both Anusha Tafraj and Cui Cui have strong international vision. The two women generals have many years of experience in multinational companies and their deep cultivation in the life insurance market, which may help Allianz Life further integrate into Allianz Group.

Chinese CEOs have made outstanding achievements

As a typical representative of China with more foreign capital, Allianz Life's "joint venture to sole proprietorship" has always been regarded as a strong evidence of China's continued expansion of opening up, and its "localization" development is particularly noteworthy. While Allianz Life Insurance welcomed the new general manager candidate, the market also focused on "veteran" Xu Chunjun.

Public data shows that Xu Chunjun has nearly 27 years of insurance experience, has successively engaged in the operation and management of multiple insurance types in several leading enterprises in the industry, and has rich experience in business development, risk management and operation management. As a professional manager, he took over as the general manager of Allianz Life Insurance in April 2021, becoming the first Chinese CEO of the company in the 23 years since it entered the Chinese market, and then served as the executive director of the company, making remarkable achievements in helping Allianz Life Insurance complete the "joint venture to sole proprietorship" and promote the "localization" development process.

The reporter of the Bank of China Insurance News found that Xu Chunjun promoted the company to start the life insurance transformation project when he was the general manager of Allianz Life Insurance. At the same time, it proposed the value proposition of building "three Allianz" (namely, cultural Allianz, green Allianz and digital Allianz) and established the "one two three four five six" business strategy. The data shows that under the leadership of Xu Chunjun, Allianz Life's business indicators continue to improve. In 2022, Allianz Life will achieve an original premium income of 6.302 billion yuan, up 11.97%; The new scale premium of bancassurance was 1.291 billion yuan, up 77.18%; The value of new business was 226 million yuan, up 54.79%; The comprehensive return on investment is 4.02%; The operating profit was 673 million yuan, up 95%. In the "cold winter" of the life insurance industry, Allianz Life's business showed resilience, and its core business and financial indicators grew against the trend.

As for the impact of this round of personnel turnover in foreign-funded and joint venture insurance companies, insiders believe that adjusting the core management will often have an impact on a company's development philosophy, corporate culture and development strategy, which is ultimately reflected in changes in the company's business focus and direction, development model, internal management system, etc. At the same time, the transformation of life insurance is a "long-term achievement". The change of core management faces the test of a long period of adjustment in the industry. Whether the injection of new ideas conforms to the trend of the local market and has a driving effect remains to be tested over time.

Foreign insurance giant "running into China"

Behind the appointment and change of the "generals" of a large number of foreign-funded and joint-venture insurance companies, there are common reasons such as shareholder factors, internal adjustment, transformation pressure, and the determination of foreign capital to constantly increase its weight in the Chinese market.

Since 2018, China's financial sector has been opening up to the outside world at a faster pace. More than 50 opening measures have been introduced, the restriction on the proportion of foreign shares has been lifted, and the quantitative threshold for foreign capital access has been significantly reduced.

With the continuous release of policy dividends, foreign insurance giants are accelerating their "running into China". In addition to Allianz Group, since last year, international well-known insurance companies such as Anda of the United States, Angus of Germany, Manford Reinsurance of Spain, and Hanover Reinsurance of Germany have further deepened their presence in China through capital increase, equity change, and the establishment of branches.

At the same time, the high development potential of China's insurance market is becoming an important engine for global premium growth. According to the recent report released by Allianz Group, China's premium income will grow by 8.1% annually in the next ten years; In 2033, China will become the world's second largest life insurance market and the world's second largest health insurance market.

It can be predicted that under the increasingly open environment and the deepening transformation and development of the industry, more and more foreign capital will enter the Chinese market and compete with traditional insurance companies. What new changes will be brought to the domestic insurance market by the talents, capital and ideas introduced by foreign-funded and joint venture insurance companies will become one of the market highlights for a long time in the future.

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