The China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission ("CBIRC") has recently issued the Interim Measures for the Administration of Insurance Asset Management Products (the "Measures"), with effect from May 1, 2020.
The Measures, enacted as a supporting policy of the Guiding Opinions on Regulating the Asset Management Business of Financial Institutions, mainly deal with contents in seven respects: 1. clearly defining the positioning and forms of products; 2. clarifying the product issuance mechanism; 3. strictly regulating product operation; 4. strengthening the responsibilities of product issuers; 5. strengthening the responsibilities of product service institutions; 6. improving the product risk management mechanism; and 7. enforcing the penetrative regulation. Among others, the Measures expressly state that insurance asset management products are considered as privately offered products that are issued in a non-public way among qualified investors, and the product forms include creditor's right investment schemes, equity investment schemes, and portfolio insurance asset management products. Additionally, the Measures state that according to the characteristics of insurance asset management products, the registration-based issuance of creditor's right investment schemes, equity investment schemes, and portfolio insurance asset management products will be promoted, and the approval requirement for the initial portfolio insurance asset management product will be removed. Definite requirements are raised for registration institutions to urge them to perform their duties and tighten in-process and ex-post regulation.