Asia

Chinese insurers must improve data-gathering

The China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC) will from next month require local insurers to adopt new standards for the compilation of insurance statistics. The move aims to turn around the current general belief that claims records and other insurance data collected by local insurers remains below internationally accepted standards. The new rules aim to standardise the compiling of insurance statistics so as to do a better job of supervision, noted the watchdog. They are needed as China is opening its insurance industry to foreign insurers and, consequently, industry competition is intensifying. Under the new rules, firms found to have filed false statistics face fines of up to 500,000 yuan and could potentially see their licences revoked.