On 29 December 2017, the Insurance Association of China announced the first group standard for the reinsurance industry in Beijing. Among which, Specification of life proportional reinsurance treaty (T/IAC 10/2017) and Specification of life catastrophe excess of loss reinsurance treaty (T/IAC 11/2017) were formulated by 7 market entities led and organized by China Life Reinsurance Company Limited. It will be published by Standards Press of China and was implemented on 12 June 2018.
The first group standard of China reinsurance industry is the regulations of a series of life reinsurance contracts. It is the first time that the China insurance industry has regulated the contents of contracts in the form of a group standard. It is reported that the Specification of life proportional reinsurance treaty and the Specification of life catastrophe excess of loss reinsurance treaty have provided clear operational standards in the areas of scope of application, terminology and definitions, basic requirements and composition of contracts.
In respect of contents, the formulation of group standard has made two major innovations: firstly, the relevant contents are highly operational and the standard is more specialized and practical as it is collected from the contents of contracts of various reinsurance entities in the market after thorough discussions between various primary insurance entities and full deliberations by a special group; secondly, the issue of insufficient systems is mitigated in a form of self-discipline conventions of reinsurance industry, which fully reflects industry demands and effectively solves business problems.
The Reform Plan of Deepening Standardization issued by the State Council expressly declares to foster and develop group standards, and launch trials of group standards. China Life Reinsurance Company Limited and Insurance Association of China, the only group standard experimental unit of financial industry, cooperate in the active response to a national call for improving the system of insurance standard and consolidating the foundations for standardized management, thereby providing strong support for the supply-side structural reform of insurance industry.
