CHINA INSURANCE GROUP EYES BANCASSURANCE JV

The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) and the China Insurance Group are expected to join with Belgo-Dutch financial group Fortis to form a bancassurance venture that will represent the largest link-up between an insurer and a lender thus far. The new company would integrate the four separate arms of China Insurance Group’s Taiping arm – Taiping Life, Taiping Insurance, Taiping Pension and Taiping Asset Management – with Fortis taking a 13% stake in the firm and China Insurance and ICBC having an equal share of the remaining 87%. Speculation over link ups between banks and insurers has been rife ever since the Chinese regulators approved legislation which allowed banks to invest in insurance companies with Ping An, China’s second largest life insurer, expected to link up with China Construction Bank in the formation of a bancassurance venture.