The China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (CBIRC) has announced the launch of a crackdown targeting malfeasance and wrongdoing in the Chinese online insurance sector.
CBIRC recently issued its “Notice Concerning Undertaking Specialist Rectification Work for Internet Insurance Malfeasance” (关于开展互联网保险乱象专项整治工作的通知) to members of the Chinese insurance sector.
“In recent years the development of Internet insurance operations has entered the fast lane, but at the same time malfeasance has proliferated, and certain online insurance platforms are suspected of engaging in insurance operations illegally,” said the Notice.
“Some insurance organisations suffer from problems such as pronounced pricing risk for their online insurance products, inadequate offline services capability, misleading sales, numerous complaints and disputes, inflated fees for sales and technical services, and illegal usage of user information.
“These are in urgent need of rectification and standardisation.”
The Notice focuses in particular on malfeasance in the areas of insurance product management, sales management, compensation management and information security, and targets in particular “misleading sales, mandatory joint sales, inflated fees, operation in breach of regulations and disclosure of user information.”
