Closer Look: Insurers Need to Invest, But Also Must Dial Down the Risk

When the head of China's securities regulator blasted "bandit" firms for using improperly raised funds to make risky equity investments, he was essentially pointing an angry finger at some insurers that had lost sight of their essential mission and were endangering ordinary investors who bought their policies.

"Using improperly raised funds in leveraged buyouts turns a stranger into a 'barbarian at the gates' and then to a bandit of the industry," Liu Shiyu, chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, said at a forum last week.