People’s Daily Online, Beijing, June 1 (Zhang Wenting) Mutual insurance is one of the most important forms in the insurance market in the world today, and its biggest feature is not to pursue profits, but to provide better insurance services for members. Now, this insurance model, which has matured abroad, has begun to try and explore in China. With the passage of time, China’s mutual insurance development model is also quietly changing.
Mutual insurance has a long history, which originated earlier than joint-stock insurance. At present, it still occupies an important position in the international insurance market, especially in high-risk areas such as agriculture, fisheries and risk protection for low-and middle-income people. The so-called mutual insurance refers to the economic activities that the insured with the same risk protection needs handle insurance for themselves on the basis of equality, voluntariness and democratic management, with the purpose of helping each other and sharing risks.
Continuous progress: the transition from zero to one, exploring different risk sharing models
2017 is an important time node for mutual insurance to truly land in China. This year, the first batch of mutual insurance organizations in China, Zhonghui Property Mutual Insurance Company, Xinmei Life Mutual Insurance Company and Huiyou Construction Mutual Insurance Company (hereinafter referred to as Zhonghui Mutual, Huiyou Construction Company and Xinmei Mutual), were successively approved for opening. It was also this year that the practical exploration of mutual insurance in China officially set sail.
At this moment in 2018, looking back on the changes in the past year, john young, the chairman of Xinmei Life Insurance Mutual Insurance Society, was quite impressed: "As the first mutual life insurance organization in China, this year has changed from zero to one, from system construction to product setting. Every step needs to put aside the shackles of traditional insurance and reflect the mutual assistance and mutual assistance characteristics of mutual insurance."
Li Jing, the chairman of Zhonghui Property Mutual Insurance Co., Ltd., has the same feeling: "Mutual insurance is a new thing in China, and we have been thinking about how to cut into which segment and which scenarios are suitable. Keep looking for ‘ Member ownership, member public office and member sharing ’ The model suitable for the core concept of mutual insurance is what we have been doing. "
Indeed, every mutual insurance organization is "crossing the river by feeling the stones", and each one has also established its own new model based on the characteristics of mutual insurance and mutual assistance and high risk protection, making it a useful supplement to China’s insurance market.
As the first mutual life insurance organization, Xinmei Mutual has always focused on raising and health needs, and all its insurance products are mainly based on long-term protection. According to john young, in order to make members feel more involved in the operation and management of the organization, and at the same time to maximize the protection of the interests of members and customers, Xinmei created a "compensation jury" mechanism and a "member love rescue account" in the past year.
"In Xinmei Mutual, when a member or customer is in danger, he should first apply to Xinmei for compensation. If the compensation conditions are met, he can get compensation quickly. If there is a dispute with Xinmei (not paying in full), the claimant can submit it to the" compensation jury "for consideration and take it as the final conclusion of whether to pay compensation or not. If a member fails to get a claim or still has a hard life after getting a claim, he can apply to Xinmei for assistance from the member’s love assistance account. " John young explained. Up to now, there have been four cases of compensation jury, and one person has been helped by love.
Hu Han, general manager of Xinmei Mutual, also said that the attribute of mutual insurance is "mutual assistance and mutual assistance", but assistance is not the purpose. What Xinmei Mutual wants to do is to establish an orderly and virtuous circle of "self-help, mutual assistance and help" between members and customers.
In addition, life insurance products in mutual insurance are also relatively affordable. According to the analysis of relevant experts, this is because the operating costs and risks of mutual insurance companies are lower than those of traditional commercial insurance companies, so their premium rate can also be lower than that of traditional insurance, while payout ratio is relatively higher. In addition, most of the profits will be returned in the form of dividends and giving away insurance, so the insured will benefit more.
The development model of mutual benefit is aimed at the financing needs of closed upstream and downstream industrial chains and individual industrial and commercial households composed of small and medium-sized enterprises. For a long time, small and medium-sized enterprises have generally faced the problems of "difficult and expensive financing", and it is difficult to obtain loans from traditional financial institutions, and instead try to raise funds from online lending platforms or private channels, but the high annualized interest rate has exceeded the affordable range of small and medium-sized enterprises.
According to Tang Ning, deputy general manager of Zhonghui Mutual, the reporter explained: "Zhonghui Mutual mainly serves small and medium-sized enterprises from the perspective of industrial chain. The upstream and downstream enterprises in the industrial chain share the same fate, and they are ignorant of every business link and risk feature in the industrial chain. It is precisely because of this strong relationship that every subject in the industrial chain will be bound by tangible contracts and intangible supervision. When good money can effectively expel bad money, the overall risk of the industrial chain can be effectively reduced, thus benefiting small and medium-sized enterprises in the industrial chain.
"For example, ‘ Mutual insurance plan for financing guarantee of small and micro enterprises and individual operators ’ From the perspective of cash flow, based on the observation of the international trade industry, it provides financing services for the capital turnover needs of the upstream and downstream entities in the chain. " He said.
Huiyou is special to each other, mainly engaged in liability insurance in the fields of housing, construction and engineering that are not common in the market. Yan Bo, the legal representative of Huiyou Mutual, said that Huiyou mutual focuses on units or individuals with homogeneous risk protection needs in the fields of housing and construction engineering? For services, the use of insurance mechanism for the whole process of risk management and control of construction projects.
Distress: profit become a common problem of three mutual insurance companies.
Although China’s mutual insurance organizations are moving towards a virtuous circle step by step, the road is still full of thorns. The 2017 annual report shows that profitability has become the biggest problem facing the three mutual insurance agencies.
According to the annual reports disclosed by the three companies, in 2017, the insurance business income of Xinmei Mutual Insurance Agency, Zhonghui Mutual Insurance Agency and Huiyou Mutual Insurance Agency was 474 million yuan, 67.111 million yuan and 4.6531 million yuan respectively. While the insurance business is growing, the operating data is losing money, with losses of 187 million yuan, 60,585,400 yuan and 31,066,300 yuan respectively, with a total loss of about 278 million yuan.
Different from joint-stock insurance companies, mutual insurance organizations have no shareholders and are jointly owned by all members, who participate in management and share the surplus. Because of this, the market pays special attention to its surplus distribution.
Regarding the fact that Xinmei has not yet made a profit, john young said frankly that it has not yet made a profit due to the large investment in the initial stage of opening. However, the relevant measures for the distribution of members’ surplus, the Measures for the Administration of Owners’ Rights and Interests of Xinmei Life Mutual Insurance Social Workers, have been formulated. It is clear that when the accumulated profit of the company is higher than the sum of the principal and interest of the initial working capital, the surplus can be distributed to members, including but not limited to increasing the insured amount, reducing the premium or deducting the subsequent premium.
The relevant person in charge of Zhonghui also said: "Under normal circumstances, newly established insurance institutions generally have a break-even cycle of three to five years. Zhonghui has just been established for one year and needs to invest resources in market expansion, team building, product research and development and model exploration. Therefore, the business scale and profitability in the first year are less comparable to those of mature insurance entities."
Future tense: new technology promotes the faster development of mutual insurance
At present, technologies such as the Internet, big data and cloud computing have revitalized the financial industry, and these new technologies are also important boosters for the development of mutual insurance in China.
Li Xiaolin, Dean of the School of Insurance of the Central University of Finance and Economics, once wrote that in the past, mutual insurance targeted at homogeneous risk groups, and it was difficult for traditional mutual insurance institutions to explore homogeneous risk groups on a large scale due to the time and space distance. Nowadays, there is no need to return to the mode of acquaintance society to develop mutual insurance. The Internet naturally forms a channel, which greatly shortens the distance between people, reduces the information asymmetry caused by the distance between time and space, and quickly gathers people with homogeneous risk protection needs in a wider range, breaking through the scope and geographical restrictions of traditional mutual insurance and providing more convenient conditions for the development of mutual insurance.
At the same time, mutual insurance institutions in the traditional sense have been criticized for the risks of opaque information and insider control, which will be well solved in the era of mobile internet. With the help of mobile Internet and social media, mutual insurance institutions can communicate with members continuously and in real time, and information disclosure can also be made known to members scattered around the country in the first time. Members can rely on the Internet to conveniently exercise their rights and fulfill their corresponding obligations. Furthermore, the sharing spirit of new technologies highlights the public welfare and good gathering nature of mutual insurance, which stems from the power of "mutual help and mutual assistance".
At present, various mutual insurance agencies are also exploring the use of new technologies such as mobile internet, cloud computing, big data, artificial intelligence and blockchain to solve the problems encountered in the exploration of mutual insurance.
John young said that at present, Xinmei Mutual is using ant blockchain technology to implement projects such as "Member Love Relief Account", "Claims File Room" and "Claims Review Group". This paper attempts to achieve decentralization and solve the trust problem through its algorithm and distributed technology architecture. Whether it is every fund transfer in the love rescue account or every claim case, it is written on the blockchain to ensure that the data is transparent and unchangeable and subject to the supervision of members. Among them, information including details of member donations, details of expenditure items, details of claims assistance cases, annual reports, etc. will also be disclosed to members simultaneously.
