NIO’s Insurance Brokerage Company Closed
NIO’s insurance brokerage company, established in January 2022, recently initiated a simple cancellation. The registered capital of the company is 50 million yuan ($7.25 million).
According to regulations, if a national insurance brokerage institution applies for operation, it shall be accepted and given a preliminary examination by local banking insurance regulatory commissions. However, NIO‘s insurance subsidiary has not been approved by the regulator.
In fact, since the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission approved China Southern Airlines Insurance Brokerage Co., Ltd. on July 11, 2018, it has never approved any other insurance brokerage company. Media outlet Beijing Business Today reported that in 2022, local regulators had canceled or planned to cancel 1,870 insurance intermediaries.
Jiemian News quoted Song Zhanjun, deputy secretary-general of the Insurance Research Center of Beijing Technology and Business University, as saying that in recent years, insurance supervision has become standardized, raising requirements for the information system construction of the insurance intermediary industry.
Some insiders pointed out that after 2018, the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission has not issued any new intermediary licenses, but a large number of insurance intermediary licenses have been transferred, which may be the future development trend. “At present, there are more than 2,000 insurance intermediary companies in China, but most of them are not operating in an ideal state, and more than 700 of them garner an annual income of less than 1 million yuan. Previously, regulators issued a notice to encourage insurance intermediaries to carry out equity swaps.”
On October 21, 2022, NIO established Anhui NIO Data Technology Co., Ltd. with a registered capital of 100 million yuan. On December 12, the company acquired Huiding Insurance Brokerage Co., Ltd. and obtained its insurance intermediary license.
In addition to NIO, at the beginning of this year, BYD’s acquisition of 1An.com, an insurance company, caused heated discussion. Prior to this, BYD Insurance Brokerage Co was approved to be established in March last year.
SEE ALSO: BYD Acquires an Internet Insurance Company for $530M
It has become a typical move for car companies, especially electric vehicle enterprises, to get involved in the insurance industry. iResearch Consulting Group pointed out that auto insurance, as the first product that consumers come into contact with after buying a car, can be used as an entrance to serve car owners because of its just-needed attributes. Car companies can take auto insurance as the starting point to develop a higher profit, after-car ecological system.
With more regulations and technologies such as big data, artificial intelligence, cloud computing and blockchain, the insurance intermediary market is facing several new opportunities.
