First fully foreign-owned insurer kicks off operations

Allianz (China), a subsidiary of German insurance company Allianz, started operations on Thursday, making it the first wholly foreignowned insurance holding company in China, as the country strengthens efforts to further open up its financial sector.

China has taken the initiative by rolling out measures to broaden access to its financial sector in recent years, which is in line with the country’s long-term goal of reform and opening-up, analysts said.

Oliver Bäte, CEO of Allianz, said at the opening ceremony that starting operations in China had gained strong support from the national financial regulators and the Shanghai municipal government, according to the Shanghai government’s official WeChat account.

“Shanghai is an exciting city, and Allianz will put more resources into Shanghai to better serve Chinese customers and other institutional investors,” Bäte said.

Since China vowed to open up its financial sector, the country has gradually released measures and policies to provide easier access for foreign capital. The country has introduced 34 opening-up policies in the banking and insurance sectors in the past two years, including expanding foreign-invested firms’ business scope and easing market access, the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission said.

Despite China’s efforts toward further opening-up, skepticism persists as to how China will open its different sectors. Doubts about whether China is only willing to open up sectors where it already has an advantage have never been absent.

But Xi Junyang, a professor at the Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, told the Global Times on Thursday that China has its own pace of opening-up, which must be based on the domestic situation.

“China’s determination to open up its financial sector is completely at its own pace instead of being forced under certain external pressure,” Xi said.