The convergence of banking and insurance channels has led to a significant shift in the insurance landscape, with agent channels experiencing reduced new business premiums and substantially lower contributions to new business value. As bancassurance and agent channels swap positions, insurance agents are confronting unprecedented severe challenges.

In the first half of 2025, interim performance reports from several listed insurance companies revealed the remarkable dominance of bancassurance channels, signaling a strong trend toward banking-insurance convergence.

Conversely, agent channel performance appeared lackluster, with three out of four A-share listed life insurance companies experiencing declining new business premiums. Over an extended period, agent channels' contribution to insurance companies' new business value has been steadily declining.

Starting in 2019, major insurance companies began quality enhancement initiatives, resulting in a sharp drop in agent numbers. Currently, the five major listed insurers (China Life, Ping An Insurance, CPIC Life, New China Insurance, and PICC Life) collectively employ approximately 1.33 million agents, down 55,000 from year-end levels.

Among these, China Life's agent force decreased from a peak of 1.15 million to 592,000, still maintaining the largest sales team domestically.

Agent channel new business premiums hit bottom in 2022, beginning a gradual recovery in 2023, though this hasn't altered the changing dynamics between agent and bancassurance channels.

Agent channels previously served as the primary source of premium income for life insurance companies, with their scale and structure directly reflecting companies' market competitiveness and strategic orientation.

New business premiums represent a core indicator of insurance companies' sustainable profitability. An analysis of basic data from four life insurance-focused companies reveals the unprecedented challenges facing agent channels oriented toward high performance and high income.

**Agent Channels Under Pressure**

Regarding agent channel new business premiums in the first half of this year, only New China Insurance achieved growth, reaching 14.506 billion yuan, up 70.84% year-over-year. China Life recorded 64.252 billion yuan, down 24.17% year-over-year, Ping An Insurance reached 75.603 billion yuan, down 20.07%, and CPIC recorded 22.622 billion yuan, down 7.74%.

Changes in new business premiums alone don't fully illustrate the weakening position of agent channels within insurance companies. The contribution of agent channel new business to life insurance one-year new business value has significantly decreased compared to previous levels.

In the first half of 2025, China Life's agent channel new business premium contribution to new business value was 85.26%, down 7.63 percentage points from year-end. Ping An Insurance recorded 64.46%, down 15.17 percentage points from year-end. CPIC showed 59.97%, down 11.98 percentage points. New China Insurance recorded 50.23%, down 14.14 percentage points.

Taking a longer-term view, since the 2019 agent quality initiatives, continuous declines in agent numbers have affected agent channel new business premium income to varying degrees. After experiencing a trough, recovery began, currently returning to approximately 2020 levels with some degree of growth.

China Life's agent channel new business reached 99.838 billion yuan in 2020 and 100.248 billion yuan by end-2024, remaining essentially unchanged, though it dropped to 81.732 billion yuan in 2022.

Ping An Insurance's agent channel new business was 114.682 billion yuan in 2019, sharply declining to 99.417 billion yuan in 2020, dropping to 90.503 billion yuan in 2022, before recovering to 148.804 billion yuan by year-end last year.

CPIC's agent channel new business was 29.035 billion yuan in 2020, declining to 22.955 billion yuan in 2022, then recovering to 31.623 billion yuan by year-end last year.

New China Insurance's agent channel new business was 15.919 billion yuan in 2020, declining to 10.672 billion yuan in 2022, recovering to 13.718 billion yuan in 2024, making it the only company below 2020 levels.

The declining trend becomes more apparent when examining agent new business premium contributions to one-year new business value. In 2019, New China Insurance's agent channel contributed over 99% to new business value, with the lowest, CPIC, at 84.32%. China Life's agent channel contributed 97.06% to new business value, while Ping An Insurance contributed 89.81%.

Currently, except for China Life maintaining above 80%, the other three companies have experienced significant declines, with New China Life showing the largest decrease to around 50%.

Regarding per-agent contributions, in the first half, China Life's individual insurance sales force totaled 592,000, with per-agent new business premiums of 108,500 yuan. Ping An Insurance had 340,000 agents with per-agent new business premiums of 222,400 yuan. CPIC had 186,000 agents with per-agent new business premiums of 84,900 yuan. New China Insurance had 133,000 agents with per-agent new business premiums of 109,100 yuan.

**Regular Premium Shortfall Supplemented by Single Premium?**

Examining agent channel new business premiums, Ping An Insurance achieved rapid recovery from low points, but analysis reveals explosive growth in single premium business through agent channels, with regular premium ratios dropping below 60%.

Single premium business allows insurance companies to quickly obtain substantial cash flows and reduce operational costs, while regular premiums provide more stable cash flows, supporting long-term capital planning and risk management. Regular premium business represents the most valuable portion of new business, reflecting long-term business composition.

First-half 2025 data shows China Life maintaining extremely stable structure, with regular premium business consistently accounting for 99.74% of new business. New China Insurance's regular premium business accounted for 98.22%, while Ping An Insurance only reached 59.61%. CPIC didn't separately disclose agent channel regular and single premium data for the first half.

Historical data shows China Life, CPIC, and New China Insurance maintained relatively stable regular premium proportions in agent channel new business, while Ping An Insurance experienced a continuous declining trend. This figure was 92.02% in 2019, dropping to 66.29% by year-end last year, and falling below 60% in the first half of this year. New China Insurance and CPIC saw some increases in regular premium ratios in agent channel new business, with New China Insurance rising from 95.84% in 2019 to 96.48% by end-2024, while CPIC increased from 75.69% to 98.2%.

Ping An Insurance's significant decline in regular premium business proportion indicates agents are increasingly promoting single premium products, focusing more on short-term scale expansion.

**Banking-Insurance Convergence Pressures Agents**

As "reporting-implementation integration" continues advancing alongside deepened individual marketing system reforms, competition in the agent sector has shifted from "scale competition" to "quality competition." However, agent channels face profound challenges to their position within insurance companies, with roles reversing between agent and bancassurance channels.

Agent channels are becoming less important to insurance companies as banks and insurance companies gradually "converge."

In the first half, four insurance companies' bancassurance channel new business premiums reached 112.525 billion yuan, up 105.75% year-over-year. China Life's bancassurance channel new business premiums were 35.673 billion yuan, up 112.43% year-over-year. Ping An Insurance's bancassurance channel new business grew 74.75%, CPIC increased 95.62%, and New China Insurance grew 150.29%.

However, bancassurance channels primarily promote single premium business, with the four companies' single premium business totaling 58.589 billion yuan in the first half, up 147.66% from the same period last year, exceeding regular premium growth.

This data not only directly demonstrates the strong recovery momentum of bancassurance single premium business but also reflects the obvious channel strategy tilt in the 2025 insurance industry, with bancassurance channels playing an increasingly prominent role in filling individual insurance gaps and driving premium scale.

Maintaining growth while ensuring business continuity and financial stability presents enormous challenges for insurance companies. How insurance agents face current challenges is also a reality that must be confronted.