Last year, bank insurance agent income surged by over 50%. This year, the bancassurance channel will continue to soar.

Recently, the financial reports released by banks for 2025 show that banks earned a significant profit from selling insurance last year.

As of the end of 2025, the scale of CITIC Bank’s insurance agency business reached 24.572 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 24.69%.

Ping An Bank’s personal insurance premium scale increased by 35.3% year-on-year. The bank disclosed that last year’s wealth management service fee income was 5.061 billion yuan, up 15.8% year-on-year; of which, the income from personal insurance agency was 1.292 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 53.3%.

Data from insurance companies reveals banks’ preference for leading insurance institutions. China Life’s total premium from the bank insurance channel reached 110.874 billion yuan last year, breaking the 100 billion yuan mark, with a year-on-year increase of 45.5%, and new single premiums reached 58.506 billion yuan, up 95.7% year-on-year.

From the annual reports of several banks and insurance institutions, it is evident that as more participating dividend insurance products are placed on the banks’ “shelves,” sales of dividend insurance in the bank insurance channel have been quite considerable.

Industry insiders interviewed expect that with falling market interest rates and driven by residents’ renewal demand, the growth rate of bank insurance business is likely to continue in 2026.

Bank insurance has become the main driving force for the growth of life insurance business.

According to data disclosed in China Life’s annual report, last year the bank insurance channel implemented the “integration of reporting and operation” policy, promoting channel cost control and efficiency improvements, resulting in significant increases in premium scale and new business value. Core indicators for bank insurance show that total premiums reached 110.874 billion yuan, breaking the 100 billion yuan mark, with a year-on-year increase of 45.5%; new single premiums reached 58.506 billion yuan, up 95.7%. First-year regular premiums reached 26.478 billion yuan, up 41.0%; renewal premiums reached 52.368 billion yuan, up 13.1%.

In terms of channel cooperation, the number of cooperative banks exceeded 100 last year, with new single issuance points reaching 77,000, a year-on-year increase of 25.9%, among which the number of star-rated points increased by 49.1% year-on-year. Additionally, the number of customer managers in the bank insurance channel reached 20,000, with per capita productivity increasing by 53.7% year-on-year.

The bank insurance channel has also become the main driving force behind Sunshine Life’s business growth. In 2025, Sunshine Life’s bank insurance channel premium income was 67.46 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 34.8%, of which new single premiums were 34.09 billion yuan, a significant increase of 69.0%, with per capita productivity for activities at 148,000 yuan, continuously maintaining a high productivity level.

In contrast, Sunshine Life’s individual insurance channel premium income was 25.976 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 13.6%, with new single premiums at 6.046 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 7.6%.

In 2025, AIA’s new business value in the mainland Chinese market grew 2% year-on-year to 1.24 billion USD. Among this, agents accounted for 85% of new business value, while the remaining 15% contribution came from bank insurance.

AIA stated that under this growth momentum, the new business value in the first two months of 2026 grew over 20% year-on-year.

Individual insurance and bank insurance are the two main channels for life insurance sales. Since 2018, individual insurance has entered a period of deep adjustment, with insurance companies refocusing on the bank insurance channel to alleviate business pressure and supplement premium scale. Starting in 2020, the popularity of increasing amount whole life insurance has driven the growth of regular premiums in the bank insurance channel, and its value rate is higher than that of lump-sum payment products, prompting large insurance companies to increase their efforts in developing the bank insurance channel. With the implementation of the “integration of reporting and operation” policy in August 2023, significant reductions in cost expenses have driven a substantial increase in value rates. Coupled with the loosening of the “1+3” point restriction (where commercial banks can only cooperate with no more than three insurance companies for insurance agency business within the same accounting year at each point), leading companies have actively expanded their bank insurance channels, continuously increasing their market share in the bank insurance channel.

The bank insurance channel is expected to maintain high growth in 2026.

It is worth mentioning that several insurance companies mentioned an increase in sales of floating income products represented by dividend insurance. Data from China Life shows that the proportion of new single premiums from dividend insurance increased by about 15 percentage points year-on-year. Sunshine Life’s data indicates that last year, floating income products accounted for 32.2% of new single regular premiums.

Dividend insurance has also enriched the product offerings of banks. Ping An Bank stated that last year the company adapted to the market by introducing multiple dividend insurance and high-end medical insurance products, continuously enhancing the richness of its insurance product offerings. CITIC Bank stated that it will continue to enrich the types of insurance products for sale in 2025, deepen layered and classified management, and collaborate with quality insurance partners to build a protection product system covering health, pension, inheritance, and other needs, enhancing business value and maintaining healthy structure through scenario-based activities and professional services.

Industry insiders believe that the banks’ push for insurance agency business is driven by the continued narrowing of interest spreads, and insurance agency sales can effectively increase intermediary income, becoming an important profit growth point.

Taking Ping An Bank as an example, its net interest margin in 2025 was 1.78%, down 0.09 percentage points year-on-year; CITIC Bank’s net interest margin was 1.63%, down 0.14 percentage points year-on-year.

There are signs that this year dividend insurance is expected to secure a “C position” (central position) on the banks’ “shelves.” Recently, reporters visited multiple bank branches and found that institutions have intensified their promotion of dividend insurance, with dividend insurance featuring a guaranteed interest rate of 1.75% becoming the mainstream product in the bank insurance channel.

CITIC Bank stated in its annual report that its wealth management business will accelerate capacity release in 2026, seizing structural opportunities in the capital market and dividend insurance, to provide clients with specialized and professional asset allocation solutions.

Song Zhanjun, deputy secretary-general of the China Insurance Research Institute at Beijing Technology and Business University, told the “Daily Economic News” reporter that currently, the guaranteed interest rates of life insurance products still have an advantage compared to bank time deposit rates, so the bank insurance channel is expected to maintain rapid development in 2026.

Guojin Securities research report shows that financial managers primarily focus on client returns and the reputation of insurance companies when selling insurance products, followed by sales expenses and additional value-added services. Given the current situation, insurance companies with strong investment capabilities can demonstrate higher illustrated rates (i.e., client returns) at the front end, giving dividend insurance a stronger sales advantage.

“In the future, floating income products primarily based on dividend insurance will place higher demands on the product explanation and customer service capabilities of bank insurance channel sales personnel, differing from the clearly defined benefits of increasing amount whole life insurance that the bank insurance channel has promoted in recent years,” Song Zhanjun emphasized, adding that the bank insurance channel should pay more attention to potential sales misguidance risks in 2026.