China's National Financial Regulatory Administration sets requirements for insurers’ use of the 2025 life insurance industry experience life table

China's National Financial Regulatory Administration issued a notice on the publication and use of the China Life Insurance Industry Experience Life Table (2025), setting expectations for how life insurers apply the new table in product pricing, statutory reserve assessment and participating policy dividend distribution, alongside strengthened actuarial governance. The nine-article notice requires insurers to determine mortality incidence rates prudently based on product liability characteristics, and to select the appropriate rate table type when assessing the minimum standard for statutory policy liabilities by prudently identifying a product’s main liabilities. It also requires insurers to ensure fairness in dividend calculations for participating insurance to protect policyholders’ rights and interests. Governance measures include reinforcing insurers’ primary responsibility for actuarial work through internal decision-making mechanisms for product actuarial management and establishing a reviewable, measurable back-testing framework; the Actuaries Association is tasked with continuing research and compilation of experience life tables and improving mechanisms for professional ethics evaluation and management. The regulator will supervise implementation of the notice, require continued application and review of the life table alongside strengthened data governance, and step up oversight of actuarial parameters and accountability for actuarial staff.