China's personal insurance market is still at a primary stage despite its volume ranking second in the world, but it has huge potential, Vice-Chairman of the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission Huang Hong said at a news conference on Dec 16.

CBIRC will support insurance companies to participate in pilot programs for long-term care insurance, regulate their bidding, service capabilities, financial management, risk control mechanism and market exit in this field, said Chen Yingdong, CBIRC’s director of the personal insurance supervision department.

In 2016, insurance for major diseases reached the target of covering 1.07 billion urban and rural residents. CBIRC is making efforts to encourage commercial insurance companies to cover medical expenses, within a reasonable range but outside the basic medical insurance catalog.

According to Huang, CBIRC will promote the development of commercial endowment insurance through the following: step up specialized market entities and support establishing professional institutions such as pension insurance and pension management companies;  further open up the commercial endowment insurance market and continue to foster a sound market environment for fair competition; enhance product innovation and provide more flexible services for pension accumulation and withdrawal services; strengthen infrastructure for pension insurance, and standardize relevant statistical standards and norms; build up a talent pool and improve their professional skills.

To accelerate the development of commercial health insurance, China will enhance publicity, encourage more health insurance with long-term liability, and encourage people to buy in, strengthen construction of the information system, actuarial system and pricing rules, and improve services of commercial health insurers, Huang said.