Sino-US insurer CIGNA and CMC Life Insurance Co., Ltd. recently was fined CNY 100,000 by the China Insurance Regulatory Commission, the top Chinese insurance regulator, for irregularity and misleading in telephone sales.

CIGNA and CMC Life, a 50-50 joint venture between US-based Cigna Corp. and Chinese conglomerate China Merchants Group, focuses on selling insurance via banks and telephones. With a registered capital of CNY 360 million, it took the lead to introduce telephone marketing into the domestic life insurance sector in 2003.

Selling insurance via telephones helps save an insurer about eight percent cost, so an increasing number of insurers in the country has cast eye on such marketing. However, it is difficult for consumers to ensure their right to learn the truth provided that they buy insurance via the channel. Problems regarding to consumers' personal information and salespersons' irregularity and misleading also become obstacle on the way of such marketing.