New energy vehicle insurance incurred a underwriting loss of 5.6 billion yuan last year; multiple banks in Shanghai have implemented domestic freight foreign exchange payment facilitation services | Financial Morning Brief

|April 2, 2026, Thursday|

NO.1 **** Li Yunze meets with the delegation headed by Huang Shanwen, Chairman of the Administrative and Management Committee of the Monetary Authority of Macao

On March 31, Li Yunze, Party Secretary and Director of the National Financial Regulatory Administration, met with the delegation headed by Huang Shanwen, Chairman of the Administrative and Management Committee of the Monetary Authority of Macao. The two sides exchanged views on strengthening regulatory cooperation between the two places, deepening financial market interconnectivity and interoperability in the Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macao Greater Bay Area, supporting Macao’s economic development, and other topics.

NO.2** Several banks in Shanghai roll out the convenience measures for making cross-border freight FX payments for domestic trade

On April 1, with guidance from the Shanghai branch of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, the Bank of China’s Shanghai branch leveraged the cross-border financial services platform to be the first to roll out, for multiple enterprises under its jurisdiction, application scenarios for facilitating domestic freight foreign exchange payments. On that same day, the Shanghai branch of China Construction Bank achieved rollout of its first batch of new-scenario business. In just one day, the bank completed freight invoice verification and settlement confirmation for 49 payments across 22 domestic enterprises, with a total amount of $769,000.

Commentary： Relying on the State Administration of Foreign Exchange’s cross-border financial services platform, the platform connects with the Shanghai Taxation Bureau’s invoice data through the China–Macao trade and commerce blockchain network. With this, the bank system can automatically verify the authenticity, validity, and whether value-added tax invoices have been used more than once. Enterprises no longer need to repeatedly submit paper materials, settlement efficiency has improved significantly, and “bottom-of-the-feet costs” have nearly hit zero; banks also gain a real, trusted, fast verification channel, and the pressure to conduct business is noticeably reduced.

NO.3** New energy vehicle insurance underwrote losses of 5.6 billion yuan last year

Recently, data released by the China Association of Actuaries and China Insurance Information Technology Management Co., Ltd. (China Sinopharm Insurance Information) show that in 2025, China’s insurance industry underwrote 43.58 million new energy vehicles, corresponding to premium income of 190 billion yuan, providing risk protection of 159 trillion yuan. At the same time, underwriting losses in the industry reached 5.6 billion yuan, narrowing losses by 0.1 billion yuan year-on-year, and the combined cost ratio declined by 1.3 percentage points year-on-year.

Commentary： With the rapid increase in the penetration rate of new energy vehicles, the share of the number of new energy vehicles in the industry’s motor insurance underwriting in 2025 has already reached 12.75%, which has a crucial impact on the profitability of motor insurance. However, behind the contradiction of “high premiums” and “high claims” in new energy vehicle insurance, a deep mismatch is reflected between traditional motor insurance product structures and the structural characteristics of new energy vehicles.

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