Heng An Standard Life, a joint venture between U.K. insurance giant Standard Life Aberdeen PLC and Tianjin TEDA International
Regulators have approved China's first pension insurance company run by a foreign insurer, a move that analysts predict more foreign financial companies would follow as China continues to open up its financial markets.
Heng An Standard Life Insurance, a Chinese-British joint venture with 50-50 ownership, has been approved to set up the country's first foreign-invested pension insurance company, the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (CBIRC) announced in a statement on its website on Wednesday.
Heng An Standard Life Insurance's pension insurance company will be the ninth pension insurance entity in China.
Heng An Standard Life Insurance's application was the first case in the insurance industry since China's legislature passed a new foreign investment law this month.
China raised the ceiling for the proportion of foreign ownership in the insurance industry to 51 percent, and will remove the restriction after three years.
The CBIRC also approved two applications from foreign insurers for greater market access and expansion of their business scope. In 2018, seven applications for foreign-funded banks and insurance institutions were approved.
The CBIRC will continue to push for the opening-up of the banking and insurance sectors and allow more qualified foreign-invested banks and insurers to participate in China's financial markets, said the statement.