Insurance Companies Mull Offering Earthquake Cover to Homeowners

(Beijing) – Insurance companies will start offering policies to cover damages to residential properties from earthquakes, in a step towards establishing a national catastrophe insurance scheme, a government document showed.

Homeowners will have access to insurance products that cover destruction caused by "earthquakes and other catastrophes initiated by tremors such as tsunamis, fires, explosions, sink holes and landslides," the China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC) and the Ministry of Finance said in an official document released on May 16.