发布时间：2008年09月01日
International Finance: China to Alter Insurers' Investing Rules
By Jonathan Cheng
2008 年 8 月 27 日
The Wall Street Journal
Chinese regulators will give the nation's insurers greater leeway to invest in real estate, a move that could help these big investors diversify their holdings and could open a new source of capital for the weakened domestic property market.
The policy shift is part of a draft revision to the country's insurance law making its way through China's legislature. Wu Dingfu, chairman of the China Insurance Regulatory Commission, told China's legislature Monday that the revised insurance law, which includes other amendments, would "help to better regulate insurers' business conduct, prevent and control risks and protect insurants' interests," according to the official Xinhua news agency.
Zhou Daoxu, vice director of policy research at the regulator, said in an interview Tuesday that allowing insurers to invest in real estate is a "vital breakthrough" for the insurers. The draft revision to the law is set to be passed later this year, he added.
Compared with their counterparts in the West, Chinese insurers are relatively restricted in which assets they are allowed to invest in, and they have been lobbying for longer-term assets to match the big payouts they are expecting to make as China's rapidly aging population retires. Jeanne Kang, a real-estate lawyer with Jones Day in Beijing, described the rule change as a victory for an insurance industry that has long pushed for more freedom to invest in the property market.
But she said how much it helps the real-estate industry will depend on what she calls the "micro rules" -- the notices, circulars, guidelines and administrative orders issued from China's myriad ministries and government bodies.
Mei Jianping, a finance professor at the Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business in Beijing, said some insurers already have taken advantage of loopholes that allow them to buy properties they occupy, using 10% of the building and leasing out the rest.
With the prospect of even more flexibility in the law, insurers could pour a substantial amount of money into commercial properties because those generate the steady streams of revenue and potential for capital gains that insurers crave, Mr. Mei said.
China's real-estate sector has been battered in recent months as home buyers take a "wait-and-see" approach to the market and as banks tighten lending to developers and potential home buyers.
关于长江商学院
长江商学院成立于2002年11月21日，是由李嘉诚基金会捐资建立的拥有独立法人资格的非营利性教育机构，为国际管理教育协会(AACSB) 和欧洲管理发展基金会 (EFMD) 成员，并获得AACSB和EQUIS认证，是国务院学位委员会批准的“工商管理硕士授予单位”（含EMBA和MBA）。学院总部位于北京，现设有工商管理硕士项目（MBA）；高级工商管理硕士项目（EMBA）；企业家学者项目；高层管理教育项目（EE）及全球独角兽项目。
长江商学院以“为中国和世界培养一批具有全球视野、 全球资源整合能力、全球价值对接能力及全球担当、具备人文关怀和创新精神的世界级商业领袖”为己任，致力于打造全球新一代商学院，通过新视野、新思维、新格局、新境界与新商业文明，培养重视社会创新的经济上新生代迭代的力量，为全球重大问题的解决贡献中国智慧和中国方案。
