The China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (CBIRC) issued the Implementation Measures for The Administrative Licensing and Filing of Insurance Intermediaries

Personal insurance, property insurance, especially vehicle insurance, have long entered the homes of ordinary people, but who is eligible to sell on behalf of others? The licensing and filing specifications of the Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission are coming.

In accordance with the Insurance Law, the Asset Appraisal Law and the Administrative Licensing Law, the CBIRC, on the basis of refining and integrating the Provisions on the Supervision of Insurance Agents, the Provisions on the Supervision of Insurance Brokers, the Provisions on the Supervision of Insurance Assessors and some relevant normative documents, promulgated the Implementation Measures for the Administrative Licensing and Filing of Insurance Intermediaries (hereinafter referred to as the Measures), uniformly clarifying the scope of matters, working conditions, application materials and application procedures for the administrative licensing and filing of insurance intermediaries.

The Measures aim to establish a fair, transparent and efficient administrative licensing and filing mechanism for insurance intermediaries, protect the legitimate rights and interests of administrative applicants, and improve the efficiency of administrative licensing and filing of insurance intermediaries.

There is often an intermediary to enter into insurance

Professor Qiang Qiang of the School of Economic Law of Northwest University of Political Science and Law said that the main body of the insurance contract is both the insured (or insured) and the insurance company (insurer), and in terms of insurance benefits, there is a beneficiary, which can be a third party other than the insured. Although insurance contracts are only concluded between the insurer and the insured, in practice, intermediaries, that is, auxiliary institutions or natural persons are often involved, as is the case in all countries.

In Terms of broad terms, there are three main types of insurance intermediaries in China: insurance agencies, insurance brokerage agencies and insurance valuation agencies. Of course, as far as insurance agencies and insurance brokerage institutions are concerned, they can be a legal entity or a group company. Qiang said that these institutions are all financial institutions and need to be licensed to expand their business.

Ancillary services are provided not only by institutions but also by natural persons. Insurance companies often sign agency contracts with natural persons, that is, common insurance sellers, who accept the entrustment and authorization of insurance companies to help insurance companies sell insurance products to other people and institutions, and obtain agency fees from insurance companies.

Among the insurance intermediaries, there are professional and part-time operators.

Common part-time agencies include commercial banks, as well as automobile sales and maintenance companies. Commercial banks sell insurance, need to obtain part-time qualifications, strictly distinguish between insurance products and bank deposits, can not be confused. Car sales and repair companies also need qualifications.

According to Kang Jiaxin, a lawyer at Beijing Zhong Lun Law Firm, in 2012, the former Insurance Regulatory Commission issued the Notice on Matters Related to Supporting the Professional Operation of Automobile Enterprises' Agency Insurance Business, which clearly stipulates that automobile production, sales, maintenance and transportation and other related enterprises can fund the establishment of insurance agencies and insurance brokerage companies, and can also cooperate with insurance agents and insurance brokerage companies that have been established, and insurance agents and insurance brokerage companies can coordinate the development of automobile insurance business. But then there were some problems.

Liu Xiaoyu, a senior partner at Bank of China Law Firm in Beijing, said that there are frequent chaos such as unlicensed sales and bundled sales of insurance in auto repair shops, and the BANKING AND INSURANCE REGULATORY has strengthened the supervision of such non-financial auto insurance agencies. In September 2020, the Beijing Banking and Insurance Regulatory Bureau issued the Notice on Strengthening the Compliance Management of Non-financial Auto Insurance Concurrent-business Agencies in Beijing, which clearly pointed out that non-financial auto insurance concurrently operating agencies refer to non-financial enterprises that hold the "Insurance Concurrently Business Agency Business License", take advantage of the relevant convenience of their main business and automobile insurance, and according to the entrustment of insurance companies, concurrently engage in automobile insurance agency business in Beijing according to law. Automobile repair shops holding the "Insurance Concurrently Operating Agency Business License" may carry out agency business in accordance with the law.

The number of practitioners and institutions has increased

Jia Linqing, a professor at the Law School of Chinese Min University, said that the former Insurance Regulatory Commission and the current Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission have always applied the administrative examination and approval system before the promulgation of the "Measures", and since the implementation of the "Measures", the establishment of insurance intermediary institutions must be in accordance with the requirements of administrative licenses, and the license filing. Its significance, as the relevant person in charge of the Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission said, is conducive to the establishment of a fair, transparent and efficient administrative licensing and filing mechanism for insurance intermediaries, protecting the legitimate rights and interests of administrative applicants, and providing high-quality services for applicants.

According to Jia Linqing's words, insurance agencies and insurance brokerage institutions are different, insurance agencies can only accept the entrustment of insurance companies, handle insurance business on behalf of insurance companies, sell insurance products, and collect agency fees from insurance companies within the scope authorized by insurance companies.

Insurance brokerage institutions, on the other hand, may accept the entrustment of insurance companies or citizens, legal persons and other organizations other than insurance companies to carry out insurance brokerage business, including negotiating insurance contracts with insurance companies on behalf of the client, or conducting risk assessments and claims for the client, formulating risk prevention plans, etc.

The so-called insurance valuation agency, strongly called the fair assessment agency, mainly exists in the field of property insurance and marine insurance. At the time of insurance application, it can accept the unilateral or joint entrustment of the insured or the insurer to conduct asset appraisal and appraisal; it can also carry out loss determination and inquest when the insurance claim is settled.

Liu Xiaoyu said that according to incomplete statistics, as of the end of January 2021, there were 3,054 insurance intermediaries, including 1,760 domestic insurance agencies and 496 insurance brokerage companies. At the end of 2019, Jia Linqing said that there were 2687 insurance intermediaries nationwide, including 5 insurance intermediary groups, 1794 insurance agency companies, 498 insurance brokerage companies, 390 insurance valuation companies, more than 30,000 concurrently operating insurance agencies, and about 9 million insurance marketers.

It can be seen that the number of people engaged in insurance intermediary services is a large group, and the number of people and institutions is increasing.

Draw a red line for executive appointments

The Measures consist of 6 chapters and 88 articles, and in terms of licensing, they involve the licensing of insurance agency business and the license of operating insurance brokerage business. The former includes three types: the license of a professional agency to operate an agency business, the license to operate an insurance concurrently agency business, and the license of an insurance agency group to operate an insurance agency business; the latter includes the license of a brokerage institution to operate insurance brokerage business and the license of an insurance brokerage group to operate insurance brokerage business.

For institutions, in addition to the compliance management, professional talents and corresponding hardware requirements that must be possessed, there are also requirements for registered capital, that is, national insurance brokerage institutions or insurance agencies, the minimum registered capital is 50 million yuan, and the minimum registered capital of regional institutions is 20 million yuan.

Implement a filing system for institutions engaged in insurance valuation business. In terms of capital requirements, the working capital of national institutions is required to be more than 2 million yuan, and the working capital of regional institutions is more than 1 million yuan. However, there are requirements for the number of appraisers and the number of years of practice.

The Measures strengthen the management of senior management qualifications, clarifying that when twelve situations occur, senior executives are not allowed to serve in insurance agencies and insurance brokerage institutions.

Those involved in civil capacity, those who do not have capacity for civil conduct or who have limited capacity for civil conduct, must not hold office.

Crimes involved include: those sentenced to punishment for embezzlement, bribery, misappropriation of property, misappropriation of property, or undermining the order of the socialist market economy, or deprivation of political rights for a crime, with the expiration of the enforcement period not exceeding 5 years.

Where a company or enterprise is restricted from operating poorly, serves as a director, factory director or manager of a company or enterprise in bankruptcy liquidation, and bears personal responsibility for the bankruptcy of the company or enterprise, it shall not exceed 3 years from the date of completion of the bankruptcy liquidation of the company or enterprise.

Those who are not allowed to hold office due to violations of discipline are the most numerous, including: serving as the legal representative of a company or enterprise whose business license has been revoked or ordered to close down due to violation of the law, and who bears personal responsibility, it has not exceeded 3 years from the date on which the company or enterprise's business license has been revoked; if he has served as a director, supervisor or senior manager of an insurance company or insurance intermediary that has had his license revoked due to illegality, and has personal responsibility or direct leadership responsibility for the revocation of his license, it has not exceeded 3 years from the date of revocation of his license Directors, supervisors or senior managers of financial institutions whose qualifications have been disqualified by the financial regulatory authorities due to illegal acts or disciplinary violations shall not exceed 5 years from the date of disqualification; those who have been prohibited from entering the financial industry within a certain period of time by the financial regulatory authorities shall not have expired; they shall be warned or fined by the financial regulators for not more than 2 years; and they are under investigation by judicial organs, discipline inspection and supervision departments or financial regulatory agencies ; Have been identified by relevant state units as targets of joint disciplinary action for untrustworthiness due to serious untrustworthy conduct and should be punished accordingly in the insurance field, or have other negative records of serious untrustworthiness within the last 5 years.

It also includes situations in which debts borne by individuals are unpaid due to large amounts of debts, as well as situations in which they cannot hold office due to laws and regulations and the provisions of the Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission.

Source: Rule of Law Daily