Quick Take: Insurance Watchdog to Beef Up Policing of Data Fabrication

China’s insurance regulator vowed to uproot the industrywide practice, especially among less-capitalized insurers, of fabricating and falsifying solvency data.

The China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC) said it will conduct quarterly checks on the authenticity of solvency data that insurers submit. If needed, the CIRC will conduct on-site inspection of insurers’ solvency management practices and records.

Special attention will be focused on insurers that are nearly insolvent, as they appear to have more of an incentive to gloss over their ability to meet financial obligations, the CIRC said Friday. Insurers with a core solvency margin of less than 60% and a comprehensive solvency margin of less than 120% belong to this group.

Both core and comprehensive solvency margins measure the extra capital an insurer holds against unforeseen events or claims. The statutory minimum of these margins Chinese insurers are 50% and 100% respectively.

The CIRC since late April has issued a slew of policy documents and directives targeting improper industry practices. It aimed at cracking down on the practice of using insurance funds to make high-risk bets on stocks and structured products, buy properties or acquire overseas assets at inflated prices.

In May and June, the regulator demanded insurers conduct self-checks on the authenticity of their solvency data, uncovering more than 600 cases of “distortion,” said Guo Qing, deputy director of the CIRC’s financial accounting bureau, at a news conference in September.

Contact reporter Dong Tongjian (tongjiandong@caixin.com)