Recently, China's five major A-share listed insurance companies, including China Life Insurance, Ping An Insurance (Group) Company Of China, Ltd., People's Insurance Company of China (PICC), China Pacific Insurance, and New China Life Insurance Company Ltd., released their mid-year performance reports. Statistical data shows that the total net profit of the five listed insurers reached 178.1 billion yuan, representing a modest year-on-year increase of over 6 billion yuan. This growth was primarily driven by the strong rebound in China's A-share market, with outstanding investment returns providing a significant boost to the industry.

In the favorable "bull market" environment, insurance companies' investment portfolios are performing exceptionally well. However, facing intense market competition, strengthening the liability side foundation remains a major challenge for all companies.

**Outstanding Investment Performance**

The 2025 mid-year reports demonstrate a stable and positive development trend across the industry. China Life Insurance, as the industry leader, achieved total premiums of 525.088 billion yuan, up 7.3% year-on-year. Total assets exceeded 7.29 trillion yuan in the first half, with total investment income reaching 127.506 billion yuan. Net profit attributable to shareholders was 40.931 billion yuan, up 6.9% year-on-year. The company announced an interim cash dividend of 0.238 yuan per share (before tax), totaling approximately 6.727 billion yuan, demonstrating strong capital strength and stable profitability.

Ping An Insurance (Group) Company Of China, Ltd. reported net profit of 68.047 billion yuan in the first half, down 8.8% year-on-year. Total premiums reached 500.076 billion yuan, up 1.0% year-on-year, with total assets of 13.51 trillion yuan. The company announced an interim dividend of 0.95 yuan per share (before tax), maintaining its leading position in comprehensive financial services.

PICC achieved original insurance premium income of 454.625 billion yuan in the first half, up 6.4% year-on-year. Net profit attributable to shareholders was 26.530 billion yuan, up 16.9% year-on-year, with total assets of 1.88 trillion yuan. The annualized total investment return rate reached 5.1%. The company proposed an interim cash dividend of 0.75 yuan per 10 shares (before tax), totaling approximately 3.317 billion yuan, demonstrating steady development momentum and strong performance.

China Pacific Insurance achieved total operating revenue of 200.496 billion yuan in the first half, with total premiums of 193.470 billion yuan, up 13.1% year-on-year. Net profit attributable to shareholders reached 27.885 billion yuan, up 11.0% year-on-year. Both embedded value and investment income grew, with non-annualized comprehensive investment return rate reaching 3.0% and total assets of 3.77 trillion yuan.

New China Life Insurance Company Ltd., the smallest among the "Big Five," achieved original insurance premium income of 121.262 billion yuan in the first half, up 22.7% year-on-year. Net profit attributable to shareholders was 14.799 billion yuan, up 33.5% year-on-year. The annualized total investment return rate reached 5.9%, ranking first among the five insurers. The company proposed an interim cash dividend of 0.67 yuan per share (before tax), totaling approximately 2.090 billion yuan, with total assets of 1.78 trillion yuan. Its rapid growth and excellent investment performance have made it a market focus.

**Significant Growth in Life Insurance New Business Value**

In life insurance business, all companies' mid-year reports highlighted strong growth in new business value, demonstrating significant achievements during the industry transformation period.

New Business Value (NBV) grew rapidly. Ping An Insurance (Group) Company Of China, Ltd.'s life and health insurance new business value reached 22.335 billion yuan, up 39.8% year-on-year. PICC Life's new business value increased 71.7% year-on-year on a comparable basis. New China Life Insurance Company Ltd.'s new business value was 6.182 billion yuan in the first half, up 58.4% year-on-year. China Pacific Life's new business value increased 32.3% year-on-year.

These figures indicate that insurers are shifting from purely pursuing premium scale to pursuing high-quality, high-value business development.

In business models, under the "integrated reporting and implementation" reform and declining interest rate environment, major insurers are actively exploring diversified development paths beyond traditional "large individual insurance" models. China Life's first-half new single premiums showed that floating return products increased by over 45 percentage points compared to the same period last year, demonstrating rapid supply-side product adjustments. Similarly, New China Life Insurance Company Ltd.'s individual insurance channel actively promoted dividend insurance, accounting for 51% of agent channel new regular premium income, achieving significant results.

In channel strategies, bancassurance channels became a major highlight. Ping An Insurance (Group) Company Of China, Ltd.'s bancassurance channel new business value increased 168.6% year-on-year. New China Life Insurance Company Ltd.'s bancassurance channel long-term insurance first-year premium income grew 150.3%, while China Pacific's bancassurance channel new business value increased 156.1% year-on-year. These figures collectively demonstrate the enormous potential of bancassurance channels in the current market environment.

Business quality continued to improve. In policy persistence rates, Ping An Insurance (Group) Company Of China, Ltd. Life's 13-month policy persistence rate reached 96.9%, up 0.3 percentage points year-on-year. PICC Life's individual customer 13-month premium persistence rate improved 0.4 percentage points year-on-year, with 25-month premium persistence rate improving 4.2 percentage points year-on-year. New China Life Insurance Company Ltd.'s individual life insurance 13-month persistence rate was 96.2%, up 1.2 percentage points year-on-year, with 25-month persistence rate of 92.5%, up 6.9 percentage points year-on-year. These data show solid progress in improving business quality and customer loyalty across all insurers.

**Significant Improvement in Property Insurance Underwriting Profits**

Property insurance business under deepening "integrated reporting and implementation" reform continued to optimize operational quality. Overall, all companies showed significant improvement in underwriting profitability.

PICC Property achieved underwriting profit of 11.699 billion yuan in the first half, up 53.5% year-on-year, with overall combined cost ratio of 95.3%, optimized by 1.5 percentage points year-on-year. Ping An Insurance (Group) Company Of China, Ltd. Property's underwriting profit was 7.978 billion yuan in the first half, up 125.9% year-on-year. China Pacific Property also maintained good underwriting profitability, achieving underwriting profit of 3.55 billion yuan in the first half, with combined cost ratio of 96.3%, optimized by 0.8 percentage points year-on-year.

These data indicate that strict cost control and refined management have significantly improved property insurance underwriting profits.

**Insurance Transformation Direction and Future Layout**

Regarding liability-side deployment, mid-year reports from all companies indicate that insurers will continue focusing on the liability side in the second half. Despite significant growth in new business value, individual insurance business challenges remain, prompting senior management to respond regarding future strategic development directions.

China Life Chairman Cai Xiliang stated that the company will continue adhering to a "customer-centric" strategy, deepening product supply diversification, and continuously advancing marketing system reform to enhance team professionalization and specialization, thereby consolidating high-quality development foundations.

Ping An Insurance (Group) Company Of China, Ltd. Chairman Ma Mingzhe pointed out that the company will deepen its "comprehensive finance + healthcare and elderly care" strategy, building core competitiveness through "service differentiation." He proposed that future development will use technology empowerment to transform service models from "niche low-frequency" to "mass inclusive," providing customers with "worry-free, time-saving, and money-saving" experiences in financial, healthcare, and elderly care services.

Regarding PICC, management clearly stated in reports that they will accelerate professional and specialized development of sales personnel while increasing innovation in specialty products. They will leverage the newly established health management company to expand healthcare service resources, seeking new growth points on the liability side.

New China Life Insurance Company Ltd. President Gong Xingfeng stated at the earnings conference that the company will continue adhering to a "customer-centric" strategy, optimizing and strengthening its core life insurance business, and accelerating the development of service ecosystems across ten major areas: healthcare, wellness, elderly care, wealth management, business services, taxation, legal services, education, entertainment, and culture, to meet customers' diversified needs.

China Pacific also clearly outlined its transformation path in earnings releases, planning to deepen its "comprehensive health and elderly care" strategy and leverage "AI+" technology to drive digital transformation, continuously improving service capabilities and operational efficiency.

These management responses collectively outline the industry's strategic priorities for the second half regarding the liability side: workforce transformation, product diversification, and construction of "insurance + services" ecosystems.

Regarding investment-side deployment and outlook, all insurers expressed active response to national policies, increasing equity market allocation to capture returns from capital market recovery. China Life increased public market equity scale by over 150 billion yuan compared to year-end, with cumulative investment of 35 billion yuan in private securities investment funds. New China Life Insurance Company Ltd.'s mid-year report showed annualized total investment return rate of 5.9%, supporting high-quality listed companies in secondary markets through establishing and investing in private securities investment funds. PICC also actively explored new models serving national strategies, establishing the "PICC Capital-State Grid New Energy Equity Investment Plan."

Although the 2025 mid-year reports show remarkable achievements on the investment side for the insurance industry, challenges remain on the liability side, particularly in individual insurance business. Future development cannot rely solely on investment returns; more importantly, through deepening reform, product innovation, and "insurance+" services, companies must achieve true "preparedness in times of safety" on the liability side, thereby achieving substantial progress while serving national high-quality economic development.