National Financial Regulatory Administration and Shanghai Municipal People's Government issue measures to accelerate Shanghai international reinsurance center

The National Financial Regulatory Administration and the Shanghai Municipal People's Government have jointly issued measures to speed the buildout of the Shanghai international reinsurance center and support higher-quality development of China's reinsurance market. The package centers on concentrating market participants and infrastructure in the China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone Lingang Special Area, improving transaction and data systems, expanding reinsurance capacity, and strengthening cross-border business and supervision. The measures call for optimizing the institutional layout in Lingang to improve the flow and allocation of market resources, including encouraging large enterprises to centralize risk protection needs there and supporting closer cooperation among insurance institutions. They also promote unified registration of reinsurance contracts and claims information through the reinsurance registration and trading center, further standardization of data, stronger data governance and confidentiality controls, and development of a more efficient digital trading platform with standardized contracts and billing. On market capacity and opening up, the measures support capital increases and capital instrument issuance by reinsurers, aggregation of underwriting capacity for major national projects and strategic emerging industries, broader channels for dispersing catastrophe and other special risks, and optimization of cross-border data services through updated guidance on outbound reinsurance data. Cross-border cooperation is to be expanded by attracting incremental international business, improving management of inward reinsurance business, and bringing in advanced risk modeling and underwriting expertise. The package also tightens expectations on internal controls and compliance, calls for more complete prudential rules for reinsurance, supports development of a reinsurance-specific monitoring system in Shanghai, and explores establishing a reinsurance arbitration mechanism in Lingang. Next, the National Financial Regulatory Administration and the Shanghai Municipal People's Government said they will track implementation of the measures, improve policy support, strengthen supervisory effectiveness, and advance the development of both the Shanghai international financial center and the reinsurance center.