Insurers tentatively resume auto-loan business
( 2003-09-26 11:29) (China Daily HK Edition)
Chinese insurance companies are quietly resuming auto-loan insurance business, setting a higher threshold for clients to control risks and pushing banks to shoulder more liabilities to ensure loan quality.
In the Suzhou and Shanghai branches of PICC Property and Casualty Co Ltd, officials have been in close talks with banks to redesign the auto-loan insurance scheme and resume the service that was stopped in July.
In Shenzhen, Pacific Property Insurance and China Merchants Bank recently clinched a deal, according to which there has to be a minimum 30 per cent downpayment for auto loans and a maximum lending term of three years.
Banks also have to shoulder more responsibility in checking the credit status of borrowers.
Similar agreements have also been reached in Ningbo of Zhejiang Province.
The moves point to a quick recovery of the auto-loan insurance, analysts said.
The booming auto market in China had triggered a rapid growth of insurance business over the past few years; but the lack of a sound risk-control mechanism and frequent defaults and insurance fraud have increased risks for insurers and banks.
Most of China's major property insurers have reportedly stopped selling auto-loan policies since July under mounting risk concerns.
However, the market potential of auto-loan and related insurance services is so big that no insurer or bank can resist the temptation, analysts said.
If insurers and banks pick customers prudently and co-operate better in credit monitoring, many of the problems can be avoided, said Zhao Xijun, deputy director of the Finance and Securities Institute of Renmin University of China.
The practice by some insurance companies to stress the responsibility of banks in credit evaluation of borrowers is one wise move, he added.
Auto insurance accounts for more than 60 per cent of all property insurance premiums in China; and have become a major income source for domestic banks.
Statistics indicated that the Big Four State-owned banks alone possessed 140.9 billion yuan (US$17 billion) of outstanding auto loans at the end of July, a 128-per-cent increase year-on-year.
"Certainly we will not give up the market or shrink the auto-loan service," said Cui Yiping, director of the consumption loan department of Agricultural Bank of China, a leader in auto-loan business.
Even though some insurers have withdrawn from the auto loan market temporarily, they would gradually return when conditions improve, she said.
But Cui also admitted that both sides would have to concentrate more efforts in risk control.
That is also one of the areas of focus for regulators - the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC) has listed investigation and supervision of auto loans as a major issue in the near term.
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