In the first half of this year, bancassurance channels surpassed individual insurance with approximately 530 billion yuan in new single premium scale, reclaiming the position as the industry's largest channel after 14 years.

As all listed insurance companies have completed their disclosure of H1 2025 financial reports, market attention has gradually shifted from overall performance to detailed aspects such as products, services, and channels. The performance of these detailed components is equally crucial for the insurance market and insurers' future development.

The channel segment undoubtedly represents the biggest highlight of the life insurance market in the first half of this year. A particularly striking and surprising trend is that many listed insurers' bancassurance channels demonstrated exceptionally strong performance, with multiple financial data points showing substantial growth in bancassurance channels, especially numerous figures exceeding 100%, making this channel the undisputed "ace" that has captured significant market expectations.

For example, the average growth rate of total premium income from bancassurance channels of the five major A-share listed insurers reached 57.36%; China Life's bancassurance channel new single premium increased by 111.1% year-on-year; Ping An Life's bancassurance channel new business value grew by 168.6% year-on-year; New China Life's bancassurance channel first-year regular premium increased by 150.3% year-on-year, with new business value growing by 137.08% year-on-year.

The strong momentum of listed insurers' bancassurance channels represents just a microcosm of the industry. Notably, in the first half of this year, bancassurance channels surpassed individual insurance with approximately 530 billion yuan in new single premium scale, reclaiming the position as the industry's largest channel after 14 years. This clearly demonstrates the current intense differentiation among various channels in the insurance market, with bancassurance channels rising against the trend, individual insurance channels still adjusting, and emerging channels awaiting breakthrough.

Behind this phenomenon, several questions deserve further exploration and contemplation: First, why could bancassurance channels overtake individual insurance to become the decisive factor for insurance companies to gain competitive advantages? Second, will individual insurance have a day of "king's return"? Third, can emerging channels like internet channels, which currently enjoy high popularity, compete with traditional channels?

**Bancassurance Channels Return to Center Stage with Dual Improvements in Quality and Efficiency**

How popular were bancassurance channels in the first half of this year? Let's first examine the performance data submitted by major listed insurers.

In terms of premium income, all seven major listed insurers achieved positive growth in their bancassurance channels. Among them, China Life achieved the highest premium in bancassurance channels at 72.444 billion yuan, up 45.67% year-on-year, leading by a significant margin; while Taipac Life topped the growth rate list with premium income surging 82.55% year-on-year to 41.66 billion yuan.

Other companies with high growth rates include Ping An Life, PICC Life, and New China Life, with bancassurance channel premium income reaching 22.875 billion yuan, 14.03 billion yuan, and 46.192 billion yuan respectively, with growth rates of 74.67%, 18.8%, and 65.1% respectively.

Even Taiping Life and Sunshine Life, whose growth rates appeared relatively modest compared to the above insurers' double-digit bancassurance channel premium growth, still demonstrated clear positive growth momentum in this channel. Taiping Life's bancassurance channel premium income reached HK$40.126 billion, up 4.7% year-on-year; Sunshine Life recorded 35.44 billion yuan, with a growth rate of 4.2%.

Notably, non-listed bank-affiliated insurers also performed exceptionally well in the first half of this year, with 10 bank-affiliated insurance companies achieving total premium income of 320.017 billion yuan, up 12.38% year-on-year, significantly exceeding the industry average growth rate and demonstrating strong premium scale growth momentum.

Looking at new business value, a key indicator measuring insurance companies' growth quality, available listed insurers all achieved explosive growth based on disclosed data. Ping An Life's bancassurance channel new business value reached 5.972 billion yuan, up 168.6% year-on-year, an astonishing growth rate that far exceeded its agent channel's 17% growth; PICC Life's bancassurance channel new business value was 2.924 billion yuan, up 107.7% year-on-year; New China Life's bancassurance new business value was 3.267 billion yuan, up 137.08% year-on-year; Taiping Life's bancassurance channel new business value was 2.108 billion yuan, up 23.93% year-on-year; Sunshine Life's bancassurance channel new business value was 2.452 billion yuan, up 52.96% year-on-year.

Worth noting is that Taipac Life and New China Life also disclosed the proportion of bancassurance channel new business value in total new business value. The former's proportion reached 37.8%, indicating that bancassurance channels have become an important source of value growth for Taipac Life; while the latter's proportion exceeded 50%, meaning New China Life's bancassurance value has surpassed individual insurance to become the company's largest value contribution channel, highlighting its significance.

The substantial increase in leading life insurers' bancassurance channel new business value stems from the "strong sales" of new singles in bancassurance channels. Data shows China Life's bancassurance channel new single premium income was 35.873 billion yuan, up significantly by 111.1% year-on-year; Taipac Life's new single premium income was 29.038 billion yuan, up 95.6% year-on-year. This demonstrates that leading insurers' bancassurance channels sold large volumes of new singles in the first half of this year, strengthening market expansion capabilities and further releasing channel value.

According to public data, many non-listed foreign or joint venture insurers also achieved relatively high growth in bancassurance new singles in the first half of this year, generally above 30%, with some insurers' growth exceeding 100%.

Finally, examining first-year regular premium data, an important indicator measuring life insurance business quality, listed insurers' bancassurance channels' first-year regular premium business performance was equally commendable. New China Life recorded the highest growth rate, with a substantial 150.3% year-on-year increase bringing in 24.939 billion yuan in first-year regular premium. Other companies fell into different growth tiers: Taipac Life's growth reached 58.6% to 8.84 billion yuan; PICC Life's growth rate was 53.9%; China Life's growth was 34.4% to 17.032 billion yuan; Taiping Life's was 10.1% to HK$10.281 billion.

Clearly, whether in premium income, value contribution, or first-year regular premium business, major listed insurers' bancassurance channels achieved not only quantitative growth but also qualitative improvements. The reasons for such outstanding performance are obviously inseparable from internal and external factors.

Looking externally, the implementation of "consistency between reported and actual rates" policy standardized bancassurance business handling fees and other cost items, effectively curbing malicious industry competition and compressing unnecessary expense space. This move promoted the upgrade of bancassurance channel operating models toward standardization, significantly reduced operating costs, substantially improved business value rates, and guided the industry's transition from "scale expansion" to "value creation" for sustainable development.

Additionally, in terms of market environment, the continuous decline in bank deposit rates during the low interest rate cycle has stimulated consumer demand for "protection + appreciation" composite insurance products. Bancassurance channels, leveraging banks' vast customer base and dense physical network advantages, can achieve precise customer reach and efficiently match demands. Products like participating insurance, which combine stable returns with protection functions, became hot sellers through bancassurance channels, serving as the core engine driving premium scale growth in the first half of this year and further consolidating the strategic position of bancassurance channels in insurance companies' wealth management ecosystems.

Looking internally, many insurance companies have clear and explicit strategies for bancassurance channels, with development focus shifting from "breadth" to "depth." For example, Ping An focuses on deepening cooperation with major state-owned banks to enhance team productivity and new business value growth; Taipac is committed to building "value-oriented bancassurance" and promoting customer segmentation and classification management; New China Life firmly implements a "scale and value equally important" development strategy, driving comprehensive growth in bancassurance business scale, regular premiums, and value.

**Individual Insurance Channels Under Adjustment, Reform and Transformation Still Expected**

In stark contrast to the rapid advancement of bancassurance channels, individual insurance channels, traditionally the core of value creation, showed relatively quiet overall performance among listed life insurers. Compared to the enthusiasm of bancassurance channels with often double-digit growth rates, individual insurance channels' premium growth rates were not high. This indicates that the individual insurance channels in the insurance industry have reached a development crossroads.

According to statistics, the five major A-share listed insurers' individual insurance channels achieved combined premiums of 962.814 billion yuan, up only 1.01% year-on-year, a relatively low growth rate. Among them, China Life's individual insurance channel achieved premiums of 404.448 billion yuan, up 2.64% year-on-year; Taipac Life's agent channel achieved premiums of 137.38 billion yuan, up 0.9% year-on-year; New China Life's individual insurance channel achieved premiums of 72.526 billion yuan, up 5.5% year-on-year; PICC Life's individual insurance channel achieved premiums of 35.414 billion yuan, up 3% year-on-year.

From a business type perspective, the ability of listed insurers' individual insurance premiums to achieve certain growth in the first half of this year was significantly supported by the larger-scale renewal business. For example, China Life's individual insurance channel renewal business increased by 10.38% year-on-year; Taipac Life's individual insurance channel renewal business increased by 2.7% year-on-year; PICC Life's renewal business premiums increased by 9.1% year-on-year; Ping An's life and health insurance business agent channel renewal business premiums increased by 3.63%; Sunshine Life's individual insurance channel renewal premiums surged by 21.3% year-on-year; Taiping Life increased by 5.9% year-on-year.

As the listed insurer with the highest individual insurance growth rate in the first half of the year, New China Life was relatively special, with channel growth driven by new singles. The interim report shows that New China Life's individual insurance channel achieved long-term insurance first-year premiums of 14.506 billion yuan in the first half, up dramatically by 70.8% year-on-year, with very prominent new single advantages.

Although the premium scale growth rate of the industry's individual insurance channels did not match that of bancassurance channels, from a quality perspective, this channel showed clear signs of resilient upward improvement. Data shows China Life's individual insurance channel achieved new business value of 24.337 billion yuan in the first half, up 9.51% year-on-year; Ping An's agent channel generated new business value of 14.397 billion yuan in the first half, up 17% year-on-year; Taiping Life's individual insurance channel achieved new business value of 4.07 billion yuan in the first half, up 22.4% year-on-year; New China Life's individual insurance channel achieved new business value of 3.105 billion yuan in the first half, up 11.69% year-on-year; PICC Life's individual insurance channel achieved new business value of 2.048 billion yuan in the first half, up 4.07% year-on-year.

Evidently, as a core indicator measuring insurers' long-term profitability, listed insurers' individual insurance channels' new business value performance in the first half was quite good, especially with Ping An, Taiping Life, and New China Life all recording double-digit growth, reflecting that various insurers' individual insurance transformation has entered a new stage and achieved certain results.

Overall, the current individual insurance transformation in the industry can be summarized into two common trends:

First, transformation focuses on quality upgrade. The industry has abandoned extensive recruitment models and shifted toward assessing quality indicators such as effective manpower, activity rates, and high-performance rates, strengthening individual insurance channels' professional capabilities and long-term stability, achieving strategic transformation from scale expansion to quality improvement.

For example, China Life continues to strengthen the individual insurance manpower management concept of "building teams through customer resources," persisting in quality recruitment and development, with quality recruitment manpower up 27.6% year-on-year in the first half, continuously optimizing team structure;

New China Life comprehensively enhanced individual insurance channel professional management capabilities through five main measures: improving management systems, strengthening team building, enhancing product promotion, deepening customer management, and intelligent tool empowerment. In the first half, its average monthly per-capita comprehensive productivity reached 16,700 yuan, up dramatically by 74% year-on-year;

Taipac Life focused on key regions, concentrated on supervisors and high-performing agents, strengthened quality team recruitment, implemented solid team management, and reinforced team training to promote team quality improvement. In the first half, its agent productivity improved significantly, with core manpower monthly per-capita first-year scale premiums reaching 72,870 yuan, up 12.7% year-on-year.

Second, individual insurance transformation is deeply integrated with product transformation. We know that participating insurance and protection-oriented products have become the industry transformation trend, and these products' inherent complexity, high value, and high customer stickiness attributes require certain explanation and customer relationship foundations, having always belonged to agent channels' "flagship products." Although bancassurance channels can obtain more sales opportunities for such products through vast customer touchpoint advantages, quickly surpassing individual insurance channels remains difficult in the short term.

Data also confirms this point. In the first half of this year, participating insurance accounted for 97.5% of Taiping Life's individual insurance new single long-term insurance; China Life's individual insurance channel participating insurance achieved rapid growth, accounting for over 50% of individual insurance channel first-year regular premiums; Taipac Life's agent channel new premium regular premiums had participating insurance premium proportion reaching 51%.

Additionally, at New China Life's mid-year performance conference, New China Life President Gong Feng mentioned: "From cumulative premiums, our individual insurance channel's participating insurance regular premiums from April to July accounted for over 70%."

It can be said that while betting on bancassurance channels has become consensus in the personal insurance industry, individual insurance channels, as the most controllable channels for insurers, remain critically important. We also believe that under the dual empowerment of continued deepening industry-wide individual insurance transformation and participating insurance as a key tool, individual insurance will eventually have its day of "return."

**Internet Channels Rising, Active Embrace Becomes New Highlight**

Besides bancassurance and individual insurance channels, with the continuous improvement of internet insurance penetration rates, internet channels' importance is now undeniable. The entire industry's online business development momentum is fierce, having evolved from individual agent scattered operations to enterprise collaborative warfare mode.

Data from the "2024 China Internet Insurance Consumer Insight Report" shows that China's internet insurance is expected to break through the trillion-yuan mark in the next five years, becoming an important growth engine for the insurance industry. Meanwhile, user online insurance purchase rates reached 78% in 2024, with post-95 generation online insurance purchase rates as high as 84%.

Under this trend, insurance companies' methods for customer acquisition and retention must keep pace with the digital internet era. To expand channel business boundaries and systematically empower business personnel's online operations, a large number of insurance institutions have begun intensively developing online tracks, which can be summarized into two main focus areas:

First, developing differentiated critical illness and accident insurance protection products with higher coverage amounts and broader protection ranges for online users to meet their health protection preferences and needs.

For example, in April this year, CMB-Cignа jointly launched with Ant Insurance an internet platform-exclusive product—Health Fortune Children's Million Critical Illness Insurance, providing protection for children's health through "low threshold + high leverage" design. Targeting the pain point of family income reduction or interruption due to illness or accidents among office workers, Pacific Health Insurance partnered with Ant Insurance to customize "Green Mountains Remain・Income Protection Insurance," providing "money for illness, up to 20,000 yuan monthly" bottom-line protection.

Second, by deploying online platforms favored by online users such as content platforms, online shopping websites/apps, and social media, creating and promoting batch production of agent IPs to empower agent business development efficiency and enhance productivity. Examples include Ping An Life's "Orange Star Plan," Pacific Life's "Red Partner Plan," Sunshine Life's "Flash Plan," and Taiping Life's "Golden IP Creation Plan."

Overall, since this year, bancassurance channels have become the dividend that major insurance companies compete for, guided by "consistency between reported and actual rates" policies and leveraging banks' vast network and customer resource advantages. The remarkable achievements also demonstrate this channel's increasingly deep transformation toward high-quality, value-driven development models. While individual insurance channels are still adjusting, the continued positive fundamentals of professional agent deep transformation and precise customer demand mining remain solid. Meanwhile, internet channels, with their convenient, efficient, and extensive coverage advantages, attract young customer groups and become new industry growth points.