In Depth: China’s Pension Insurers Told to Stop Pursuing Quick and Risky Profits

A type of short-term wealth management product (WMP) has become an important source of income for China’s pension insurance firms (养老保险公司) in recent years, but regulators have grown uneasy as this contradicts the long-term role the companies are intended to play in the country’s pension system.

The China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (CBIRC) is steering these companies back to focusing on their original core businesses, including managing employer-sponsored pension funds and offering pension products to individuals, as part of the country’s plans to grow its underdeveloped private pension system and combat a looming pension shortfall.