Life insurance companies in China, both domestic and foreign-funded, collected 481.89 billion yuan (70.55 billion US dollars) in premiums in the first seven months of this year, up 66.7 percent year-on-year, the China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC) said on Thursday.

The growth rate was 2.3 percentage points higher than in the first half alone, it said.

In terms of life insurance premiums, the total included 203 billion yuan for China Life, up 54 percent, 61.4 billion yuan for Ping An's life insurance company, up 30 percent, and 43.7 billion yuan for Pacific Insurance's life assurance branch, up 58 percent.

In July alone, these three collected premiums of 12.8 billion yuan, 7.5 billion yuan and 4.8 billion yuan, respectively, up 98 percent, 48 percent and 55 percent over the year-earlier level.

Luo Yi, an analyst with China Merchants Securities, attributed the fast growth to sales of investment-oriented policies through banks, which could result in risks such as exaggeration of investment returns and weak supervision.

Chen Wenhui, assistant to the CIRC chairman, said earlier at an internal meeting of the commission that sharp fluctuations in the insurance sector should be avoided and steps should be taken to achieve a soft landing of the life insurance business.

Chen's comments were echoed by Jin Wenhong, chairman of Pacific Insurance, who said the rapid expansion of investment-oriented life insurance exposed the entire insurance industry to extreme volatility.

Wan Feng, president of China Life, noted in the second half year, his company would stick to marketing traditional policies and develop investment-oriented products appropriately.

In the remainder of the year, growth in premiums for life insurers would slow, Wang Xiaogang, analyst with Eastern Securities, forecast.

(Xinhua News Agency August 28, 2008)