By Yuan Min, Wang Jianzhao and Kirby Carder, King & Wood Insurance Department

Recently, the Shanxi Provincial China Insurance Regulatory Commission ("CIRC") provided a report on the results of its insurance industry transparency project. The overall goal of the project was to promote the stable, secure, and sustained development of the insurance industry in Shanxi province by meshing together government regulation, internal insurance ocmpany protocols, insurance industry self-regulation, and public participation in the insurance industry.

In this report, the Shanxi CIRC noted that it created a website where insurance purchasers and providers could directly ask it questions about its rules for the insurance industry. It believes that this this direct line of communication with the insurance regulator has helped promote consumers and insurance providers understanding of China’s requirements for the insurance industry. Moreover, the Shanxi CIRC implemented policies to help promote electronic insurance policy premium payments to help reduce policyholders and insurers’ ability to use illegally gotten funds to purchase insurance products and to prevent misallocation of insurance premium payments. Furthermore, the Shanxi CIRC noted the success of the online auto insurance information platform it has created that is allowing the Shanxi auto insurance market to become more efficient. Finally, the Shanxi CIRC noted that it felt like its effort to promote arbitration for auto insurance claims because of the experiment it has been running in Taiyuan city. This experiment created a arbitration commission for auto insurance disputes that the Shanxi CIRC believes has helped provide an efficient low cost way to resolve auto insurance claims.

Overall, the Shanxi Provincial CIRC considers this transparency project to be a great success, and therefore, there is a possibility that other provincial level insurance regulatory authorities or even the central government insurance regulatory authority could also implement similar projects to enhance the stability and growth in that province.

If you would like more details on the Shanxi CIRC’s transparency project please contact us. Or if you would like more information on some of the policies that the Shanxi CIRC implemented that required insurers providers in Shanxi to adjust their internal policies or disclose additional information please contact us.

The information contained in this article is available at: http://www.sinoins.com/news/101215/55637.html