Insurance investment plays an important role in the operation of insurance companies. However, the current situation of capital operation of insurance companies in China is not satisfactory. As a commercial enterprise, the fundamental purpose of insurance companies is to maximize profits. With the intensification of market competition, the profits of insurance companies can no longer rely solely on the difference between the premiums collected and the insurance claims under a certain probability, but more and more rely on the effective operation of insurance investment. Because of the difference between insurance and payment, its profit rate is certain and has a decreasing trend, while the expected profit rate of insurance investment operation is infinite. Therefore, only by carrying out various investment operations safely and effectively can insurance funds obtain long-term stable growth and insurance companies obtain higher profits. It can be seen that effective capital operation is the pillar of modern insurance industry and the lifeline of insurance operation and development.

Second, the history and present situation of insurance investment in China

(A) the historical evolution of insurance investment in China

In the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, the funds of insurance companies in China could only be deposited in banks according to regulations, and all the interest earned was turned over to the state finance, and there was no insurance investment at all. After 20 years of suspension, the insurance industry in China has been reborn with the reform and opening up. China People's Insurance Company resumed its domestic insurance business on 1980 and actively developed its foreign insurance business.

1984165438+10, the State Council approved the Report on Accelerating the Development of China's Insurance Industry of People's Insurance Company of China, which pointed out: "After deducting the indemnity, compensation reserve, expenses and taxes, the insurance premiums of the head office and branches can be used by themselves." The Interim Regulations on the Management of Insurance Enterprises promulgated by the State Council in March, 1985, made it clear that insurance enterprises can independently use insurance funds from the perspective of laws and regulations. This is not only a major breakthrough in China's insurance system reform, but also a strategic measure to enhance the vitality of China's insurance industry, which has a far-reaching impact on accelerating the development of China's insurance industry. The investment of insurance companies in China can be roughly divided into the following stages.

1, initial development stage: 1984 to 1988.

After the People's Insurance Company of China obtained the investment right, from the second half of 1984, the head office began to carry out investment (including loans) business in Beijing, Jiangsu and other places, and some branches in provinces, autonomous regions, municipalities directly under the Central Government and cities under separate state planning also carried out insurance investment business one after another.

At present, the People's Bank of China strictly manages the investment activities of insurance companies. First, plan to control the scale of capital utilization. For example, in 1986, the People's Bank of China issued an investment quota of 200 million yuan to PICC. Second, strict regulations have been made on the way and direction of the use of funds. During the period of 1986, PICC's capital utilization was limited to investing in local self-raised fixed assets projects. 1987 approved the trial operation of working capital loan business and the purchase of financial bonds. At present, the operating efficiency is not ideal, and the asset utilization rate and investment income level are relatively low. Taking 1986 as an example, the utilization ratio of domestic business summary assets of China People's Insurance Company is only 9.23%, and the return on investment is only 0.83%.

2. Adjustment and rectification stage:1end of 988 to1end of 990.

Due to the rectified economic environment and the situation of tightening credit scale, as well as the poor operating efficiency of the insurance industry itself, China's insurance investment business entered the stage of adjustment and rectification at the end of 1988. Its contents and measures include: summing up the experience and lessons of capital utilization in previous years, strictly implementing the credit plan, conscientiously implementing the interest rate policy, converting funds into working capital loans, adhering to the principle of "ten no loans", paying attention to "focus tilt", and taking measures such as guarantee and bank acceptance bill mortgage to improve the safety and profitability of capital utilization. At the present stage, China PICC's fund utilization work, except the working capital loan business, mostly focuses on the collection of original investment loan projects. The use of funds is limited to working capital loans, loans for technological transformation of enterprises, purchase of financial bonds and interbank lending.

3. Further development stage: 199 1 year to 1995.

After more than two years of adjustment and rectification, coupled with the improvement of the macroeconomic situation, the insurance investment business began a new development stage at 199 1. At this stage, insurance investment has been generally recognized and valued in the insurance industry. China Ping An Insurance Company and China Pacific Insurance Company, two newly established national insurance companies, have joined the ranks of insurance fund utilization. The scale of insurance investment continues to expand, at the end of the year 1992. The balance of funds used by PICC, Ping An and Taibao reached 654.38+00.946 billion yuan. The scope of insurance investment has been broadened, securities investment has developed greatly, and the income from insurance investment has increased.

4. Standard development stage: 1995 till now.

With the promulgation and implementation of 1995 Insurance Law, insurance companies have adjusted their business according to the Insurance Law to meet the requirements of the Insurance Law. The implementation of the Insurance Law has laid a foundation for the standardization and healthy development of China's insurance investment business.

(B) China's insurance companies insurance investment status

1, weak decision-making mechanism

At present, many insurance companies have not established a set of standardized and effective decision-making mechanisms, and PICC P&C Company did not set up a special insurance investment company until the second half of 2003. The blindness, passivity and randomness of decision-making are very prominent. This decision-making mechanism will not reflect any crisis when only bonds can be invested. For insurance companies with rapidly growing assets, it will cover up the disadvantages of their decision-making: the decision-making mechanism is backward and the decision-making feedback mechanism has not yet been established, which will be fully exposed after insurance companies enter the fund market.

2. The insurance investment channels are narrow.

Before 1998, the channels of capital utilization of insurance companies were limited to bank deposits, buying and selling government bonds, financial bonds and other forms of capital utilization stipulated by the State Council. According to the Regulations on the Administration of Insurance Companies, which came into effect on March 1 2000, the use of funds by insurance companies is limited to bank deposits, buying and selling government bonds, financial bonds, buying and selling central enterprise bonds designated by the China Insurance Regulatory Commission and other forms of capital use stipulated by the State Council. In western countries, insurance companies have more legal channels to use funds. For example, the United States and Japan stipulate that insurance companies can engage in treasury bonds, corporate bonds, stocks, mortgage loans, real estate, policy loans and other businesses.

3. The utilization rate of insurance funds is low.

The utilization rate of insurance funds is basically 90% abroad, but less than 50% at home. Limited insurance funds are mainly used for bank deposits. According to statistics, 40%-60% of the insurance funds of PICC, Pingbao and Taibao in 1998 are limited to cash and bank deposits, and the insurance funds are basically useless. By the end of 1999, the capital utilization rate of China People's Insurance Company was less than 20%. In order to ensure the safety of insurance funds, insurance companies deposit a large amount of funds in banks for professional use. Insurance companies can only get fixed and low deposit interest, far from maintaining and increasing the value of insurance funds. Insurance companies must open up new investment fields to ensure the profitability and safety of their funds.

4. Insurance investment lacks corresponding talents.

Insurance investment involves many fields, such as deposits, national debt, securities and so on. Therefore, insurance investment talents must have a vision for the national economic development and a basic understanding of the development of various industries, so as to be bold and flexible, be good at capturing business opportunities and get rich returns in the capital market. However, due to historical reasons, the existing employees of China's insurance companies are basically composed of demobilized cadres from financial institutions and government departments and ordinary university graduates. The first two parts account for about 70% of the company's employees, and most of them are over 40 years old. Such a human resource structure presents obvious disadvantages, that is, the knowledge structure is aging and lacks creativity. If insurance companies want to benefit from insurance investment, they must introduce corresponding talents and pay attention to the cultivation of young talents within the company. Copyright of free official document network.

5. The management level of insurance companies is backward, which affects the income of insurance investment.

Due to China's long-term implementation of the planned economy system, backward management system and lack of scientific decision-making in investment, many companies have weak scientific decision-making and internal restraint mechanisms. As a result, there have been many leading project loans and personal loans. Many loans of these projects can not recover the investment principal and interest, and even become bad debts and bad debts. The backward management level has affected the investment income.

The survival and development of China's insurance companies objectively require the effective use of insurance funds. However, this does not mean that China will completely liberalize the restrictions on the use of insurance funds at once. There are still some places to be improved and some systems to be formulated. This is a gradual process.

Third, the idea of establishing the insurance investment system in China.

(1) Insurance investment objectively needs to establish an effective investment system.

The so-called insurance investment system refers to the operating mechanism and management system of insurance investment activities. The purpose of establishing insurance investment mechanism is to improve insurance investment income and reduce investment risk.

The underwriting business and investment business of insurance companies are two important characteristics of modern insurance industry, among which insurance investment business has become an important means for the survival and development of modern insurance companies. On the one hand, the development of insurance investment business will expand the profits of insurance companies and increase their solvency, operating ability and stability. At the same time, the increase of insurance company's income will make the insurance company reduce the insurance premium rate, reduce the burden of the insured and improve the competitiveness of the insurance company. If China's insurance industry is not based on investment income, it will be difficult to compete with foreign insurance companies in terms of price (rate) after China's entry into WTO. On the other hand, the development and profit of insurance investment business can make up for business losses and maintain the survival and development of insurance companies. For example, in 1987, the insurance business losses of the two major British insurance companies were 64 million pounds and180,000 pounds respectively, while the investment profits were 204 million pounds and 249 pounds respectively. After breakeven, there is no small comprehensive profit. Judging from the recent development characteristics of the international insurance industry, the main income of insurance companies has gradually shifted from traditional underwriting income to investment income. For example, the property insurance business in the United States, starting from 65,438+0,978, has covered losses for 265,438+0 years, and its main income comes from investment income.

Because insurance management is a debt management, the use of insurance funds must not only consider the income of investment, but also ensure the safety of investment. Therefore, the opening of the market, the increase of investment tools and the continuous expansion of investment scale objectively require insurance companies to further strengthen the construction of investment mechanism, improve their ability to resolve risks, and ensure the coordination between insurance funds and investment income.

(2) The insurance industry should establish and improve the systems and norms of insurance enterprises as soon as possible.

Establishing and perfecting China's insurance investment system is a systematic project. Only by establishing modern enterprise system and strengthening management can insurance companies provide fundamental institutional guarantee for high-level and efficient insurance investment. How to strengthen management, I personally think it can include the following contents:

First, increase the transparency of the company's operation and the supervisory role of public opinion, use legal weapons, severely punish those behaviors that harm shareholders' rights and interests, and earnestly safeguard shareholders' rights and interests.

Second, establish and improve the restraint and incentive mechanism for managers, completely change the old employment mechanism, let the market and competition determine the selection of managers, and let the salary of managers be directly linked to the company's performance.

Third, strengthen management innovation. According to the requirements of modern enterprise system, we should abandon the old and traditional management mode and its corresponding management mode, and create a new management mode and its corresponding methods.

(C) to further broaden the channels for the use of funds

The use of insurance funds is the basis of the steady operation of insurance companies and an important factor related to the operating conditions of insurance companies.

Due to the late start of China's insurance industry, the problems in the use of insurance funds in China are that the scale of securities investment funds is too small; Insurance companies cannot control the risk of capital entering the market; At present, closed-end funds occupy the mainstream, and insurance companies can only passively pay dividends, which is difficult to realize; The channels for using insurance funds are too narrow; The short-term behavior of insurance funds is serious.

In view of these problems, we must further broaden the channels for the use of insurance funds, speed up the pace of capital entering the market, and make China's insurance industry develop continuously and rapidly.

1, insurance funds enter the market

(1) The entry of insurance funds into the market can enhance the profitability of insurance companies, and if properly used, it can effectively solve the problem of "spread loss" faced by insurance companies. If you invest within the scope stipulated in the Insurance Law, the annual spread loss will be 3 to 6 percentage points, which has laid a huge hidden danger for the long-term development of insurance companies. The deposit rate in the bank is 2.25%, and the income from treasury bond trading is only 6%-7% at most. In the interbank lending market, due to the limited amount of funds, the rate of return is very small. In 2000, the average income of insurance companies investing in securities funds reached 12%. Therefore, in the long run, it is of great significance to improve the profitability of insurance companies and solve the "spread loss".

(2) Insurance funds entering the market can effectively improve the asset structure of insurance companies. If insurance funds are allowed to enter the securities market in strict proportion, the pressure of idle funds can be alleviated to some extent. Because insurance funds enter the securities market for equity trading, under the action of the securities market mechanism and according to the principle of using insurance funds, insurance companies will inevitably invest their funds in enterprises with good benefits and strong growth, thus objectively improving insurance assets accordingly.

(3) In the long run, the entry of insurance funds into the market will play a certain role in promoting insurance consumption. The entry of insurance funds into the market has undoubtedly enabled the country to find a more effective way to allocate funds, thus forming the connection between some social funds and the securities market. In the process of connecting this bond, not only can the whole society be changed.

The structure of funds can also ensure greater economic development, thus making the country, enterprises, individuals and insurance companies develop better.

(4) The entry of insurance funds into the market can enhance the international competitiveness of China insurance companies. With China's entry into WTO, the insurance industry is facing greater impact and pressure. In addition to improving service quality to win insurance policies and expand customer base, how to get the maximum guaranteed income from premium income is a key issue for insurance companies. In developed countries, the investment channels of insurance funds are much smoother than those in China. In addition to depositing in banks and buying government bonds, insurance funds can also be involved in the securities market and even the real estate industry. Therefore, the entry of insurance funds into the market can enhance the competitive strength of Chinese-funded insurance companies and foreign-funded insurance companies, and better lay the economic foundation for China after its entry into WTO.

(5) Insurance funds entering the market can effectively alleviate the contradiction between supply and demand of funds in the securities market and help stabilize the securities market. With the continuous development of the insurance industry, the scale of insurance funds that can enter the market will become larger and larger, which will certainly improve the capital structure of the securities market and play an increasingly obvious role in the long-term development of the securities market.

2. Insurance funds enter the short-term lending market.

Although the insurance company has a high reputation, it cannot enter the short-term lending market by credit, and it must have a mortgage. If we can directly enter the short-term lending market by credit, it will be convenient for insurance companies to improve the efficiency of capital utilization.

3. Expand the scope of investable corporate bonds.

At present, insurance funds can only buy railway bonds, power bonds and Three Gorges bonds, and should be extended to other corporate bonds. Although the quality of corporate bonds is good or bad, or risky, it is necessary to believe that insurance companies have certain discriminating ability.

4. Entrusted asset management. Copyright of free official document network.

Asset entrustment means that an insurance company entrusts funds to a professional asset management company in the form of a contract for operation. Its biggest advantage is that the insurance company saves worry and effort, and does not have to do everything by itself. At the same time, it is operated by a professional company, which can also guarantee a higher return.

(4) Training talents who use special funds.

China's entry into WTO will make the insurance industry face a more severe test. How to make good preparations, take measures and do a good job of investment return is discussed from the aspects of institutional mechanism innovation and broadening the channels of capital utilization. However, to ensure that these countermeasures are realistic, decision-making reference and operability, the key lies in people and the key depends on the quality of cadres and workers in insurance companies at present. Therefore, first of all, we should change the aging problem of cadres, and divert a group of aging personnel by buying out the length of service and retiring early to ensure the vitality and vitality of the team; Secondly, starting with management, through secret reform, we will build an efficient and streamlined institutional management system of first-class modern commercial insurance companies that is in line with international standards and integrate with the international economy as soon as possible; Thirdly, we should pay attention to the introduction and use of talents and reserve cadres and talents. At present, the urgent task is to establish a cadre team with reasonable structure and excellent quality around the long-term goal of accelerating efficiency; And train and select a group of outstanding young and middle-aged cadres, establish a sufficient number of reserve cadres with reasonable structure, and build a talent pool that pays equal attention to long-term training objectives and short-term appointments. Dissertation on Insurance Management: On the insurance investment of insurance companies (1) comes from free model net.

Further reading: How to buy insurance, which is good, and teach you how to avoid these "pits" of insurance.