CHINA will issue rules allowing banks to invest in insurers "very soon," the nation's insurance regulator said.
Several Chinese banks are keen to buy stakes in insurance companies, Li Kemu, vice chairman of the China Insurance Regulatory Commission, said at a conference in Beijing yesterday.
China is letting state-owned banks diversify into new businesses to help them add revenue sources and boost profits, fending off increased competition from global rivals allowed in December 2006 to offer local-currency services across China, Bloomberg News said.
Bank of China Ltd, China Construction Bank Corp, and Bank of Communications Ltd have applied for permission to set up their own insurance ventures.
"We are aggressively seeking" approval to be among the first Chinese banks to buy stakes in insurers, Wu Jiajun, deputy general manager of BoCom investment management department, said yesterday.
Shanghai-based BoCom is in talks to buy a 51 percent stake in China Life CMG, a venture between China Life Insurance (Group) Co and Commonwealth Bank of Australia, the Caijing magazine said, citing unidentified people. Wu declined to confirm or deny the Caijing report.