SHANGHAI (Reuters) – China’s banking and insurance regulator recently asked banks and insurers to develop pension financial services and invest the funds in areas in line with national strategies and industrial policies, the official Shanghai Securities News reported on Monday.
The move comes as China launched its first private pension scheme last month, as it tackles economic challenges linked to an ageing population and looks to channel more long-term money into the stock market.
The China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (CBIRC) said banking and insurance institutions should strengthen investment management of the pension funds, to provide support for capital markets and technological innovations, the newspaper said.
China’s securities regulator urged mutual funds to develop fund products for private pensions in late April, a week after the launch of the private pension scheme.
Those pension financial services include commercial pension savings, commercial pension wealth management, commercial pension insurance, and they should embody “pension” attributes, the paper added.
The CBIRC would encourage banks and insurers to provide long-term and lifetime pension services to customers and support business cooperation between those institutions.
(Reporting by Jason Xue and Andrew Galbraith; Editing by Jacqueline Wong)
