CHINESE REGULATORS PLANS INCREASED FOREIGN FIRM SCRUTINY

OFFICIAL reports claim Chinese insurance regulators are to increase their scrutiny of foreign carriers. The move is designed to prevent cross-border risks, according to the Xinhua News Agency, which did not specify any individual companies. Nikkei noted that foreign life insurers or their joint venture operations accounted for Yuan28.bn in the first nine months of this year, out of a total of Yuan600.6bn. China’s insurance regulators are already looking to tighten their solvency regime and strengthen regulation of the sector generally in the face of the global economic turmoil. New rules outlined at the end of last week set out minimum capital requirements for different types of insurance companies and cut the amount of funds that insurers can use to make domestic and overseas investments, Nikkei reported.