The China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC) and China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC) have issued new bancassurance guidelines, in a bid to safeguard consumers’ interests when banks sell them insurance products.
The new set of rules are aimed at commercial banks and insurance firms, the Chinese banking and insurance regulators have asked the bank to sell the products as per the customers’ requirements, reported asiainsurancereview.com.
Through new bancassurance guidelines, which will come into force from 1 April 2014, the banks in the country will have to carry out risk assessments of customers prior to selling them insurance products.
As per the new rules, the lenders will have to forward insurance applications from low-income and elderly customers to the participating insurance companies for review.
"Commercial banks should analyse the insurance applicants’ needs and their capabilities to deal with risks, and suggest insurance products based on the results of their assessments," the rules dictate.
Furthermore, the banks will have to provide a period of 15 days to customers to enable to decided whether to purchase a product or not.
Under the term of the new rules, a bank outlet can only cooperate with a maximum of three insurance companies in an accounting year.