Beijing Tops Market By 2009 Insurance Penetration

Over the past year, Beijing ranked No.1 with the insurance penetration of 5.9%, People's Bank of China (PBOC) said in a latest report.

Following Beijing is Sichuan, Shanghai, Hebei, Shanxi and Tibet. By the insurance density, such economically developed first-tier cities as Shanghai, Beijing and Tianjin took the first three places respectively; but it in West China was relatively low.

By the end of 2009, China totally had 138 legal-person insurers, of which, up to 82.5% were clustered in East China. In terms of the premium growth, East China, Central China, West China and Northeast China saw a growth of 14.0%, 12.9%, 16.1% and 9.3% respectively. The compensation payment of East China, Central China and West China was up 8.3%, 2.7% and 7.9% respectively. Of the total CNY 1.1 trillion insurance premium revenues last year, East China took up 54.5%, followed by 19.1% for central China, 18.1% for West China and 8.3% for Northeast China.