The head of the Insurance Regulatory Commission has stressed that vigilance in minimizing risk remains a top priority for local companies. Wu Dingfu is urging Chinese firms to get a better understanding of changes both on the domestic and global fronts, as well as their potential impacts on the insurance sector.

This comes in the wake of a series of financial shocks last week with leading global insurer, AIG, scrambling for capital, before finally succumbing to a takeover loan from the Fed.

Chinese financial firms have relatively limited exposure to AIG and other beleaguered Wall Street institutions. But with China's insurance market the first slice of the nation's financial sector to open up, Wu Dingfu is warning of challenges ahead from a global environment that is both complex and immensely volatile.

(CCTV September 26, 2008)