Bank of Communications (BoCom) may soon be involved in the mainland's insurance business through its wholly-owned insurance subsidiary registered in Hong Kong.

China Communications Insurance Co Ltd (CCIC), a property and casualty insurer solely invested by China's fifth-largest commercial bank in 2000 with a registered capital of HK$100 million (US$12.8 million), has entered advanced negotiations with some mainland partners, and may soon submit an application to the China Insurance Regulatory Commission, according to a report in Shanghai-based China Business News.

There may be five to six mainland partners, or even 10, the report quoted an unnamed BoCom official as saying.

However, Shanghai-based BoCom declined to comment yesterday when it released an interim report.

For a start-up insurance company, "it is better to team up with big mainland partners which can bring big clients," Wang Xujin, director of the insurance department at Beijing Technology and Business University, told China Daily yesterday.

One of its mainland partners may possibly be China Minmetals Corp, the country's mineral industry leader, the report said, adding that the insurer is also talking to other Beijing-based big companies.

BoCom can leverage its wide network of branches for the insurance business, industry analysts said.

The bank has about 2,700 branches in the country; and it has obtained a licence to sell insurance products through its network in China.

However, the new insurance company, if established, is unlikely to have an immediate positive impact on BoCom's business, Wang said.

Yang Qingli, a senior banking analyst with the CITIC Securities Co Ltd in Beijing, agreed with Wang.

"The new company is small, and unlikely to influence BoCom's business much," although it may help the bank expand to new territory in the mainland, Yang told China Daily.

However, She Minhua, a banking analyst with China Securities in Shanghai, said: "In the long term, the new company may help BoCom do better in intermediary businesses, which are potential growth points for any retail bank.”

BoCom said in its interim report that the bank made a pre-tax profit of 6.88 billion yuan (US$848 million) for the first half, a year-on-year increase of 173.5 per cent.

And its total assets reached nearly 1.3 billion yuan (US$160 million), an increase of almost 13 per cent from the end of last year.

The bank focused its efforts on credit cards, consumer financing and private banking in the past several months and has maintained fast development and high profitability, according to the interim report.

The bank also expressed confidence for the second half of this year, now that it has been listed in Hong Kong, launched a fund management company, and secured business licences for managing corporate annuities in China.

Its future focus will be to improve internal risk control with the help of Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corp, its strategic foreign partner, BoCom said.

(China Daily August 23, 2005)