Recently, the China Insurance Regulatory Commission ("CIRC") has issued the Circular on Further Implementing Policies and Guidelines concerning the Removal of Non-capital Functions out of Beijing (the "Circular").
The Circular sets forth six measures as follows. The first is guiding insurance institutions with the legal personality to Tianjin Municipality and Hebei Province, so as to ease the pressure of incorporating corporate bodies within the Beijing area; the second is making good arrangements for the gradual layout of professional insurance agencies, and in support of the establishment of national professional insurance agencies based in Hebei Province and other neighboring places with various eligible capital; the third is encouraging insurance companies to distribute their branches appropriately and supporting those insurance companies without any branch in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region to set up branches in such places as Hebei Province with priority; the fourth is guiding insurance companies to clear out and relocate their subordinate service agencies currently situated in Beijing and preventing them from establishing any new data center in Beijing; the fifth is encouraging insurance companies to run service agencies in other regions outside Beijing, and supporting them to set up subsidiaries providing shared services in respect of IT and audit and establish their subordinated service agencies such as data centers; the last is encouraging insurance companies to distribute insurance-related businesses in other surrounding areas outside Beijing and supporting them to make overall plans of rendering elderly-care, healthcare, automotive services and other businesses in relation to the insurance business in Tianjin Municipality and Hebei Province.