China Sunday relaxed its control on the ratio of the sum of investment of insurance capital in corporate bonds to its total assets, according to the revised provisions made public on Sunday.

According to the provisions made public by the China Insurance Regulatory Commission on the investment of insurance capital in bond market, there are no restrictions on the sum of investment in State treasury bonds by an insurance company.

Under the revised provisions, the ratio sum of investment in corporate bonds will be no more than 30 percent of the total asset the insurance firm had at the end of previous quarter.

Bonds have classified into three major categories, including State treasury bonds, financial bonds and corporate ones.

Insurance firms are required by the provisions to establish their bond investment risk evaluation system and readjust their ratio of investment according to the changing credit of the bonds.

Sun Jianyong, director of the Department of Capital Untilization Supervision under the commission, said the revised provisions aimed to boost the core competitiveness of the investment of insurance capital.

Bank deposits used to be more than 80 percent of the investment of insurance capital, and the ratio has been decreasing due to the fast development of the country's capital market.

By last March, bond investment surpassed bank deposits as the major destination of insurance capital as bond investment accounted for 48.56 percent of the total insurance capital.

Wu Dingfu, chairman of the commission, said insurance capital has been the second biggest institutional investor in the bond markets after banks.

(Xinhua News Agency August 22, 2005)