(Source: Economic Daily)
Source: Economic Daily
Industry insiders report that the China Insurance Association recently issued the "Measures for Building Credit Records of Insurance Sales Personnel" (hereinafter referred to as the "Measures"), which will take effect on 2027 year, 1 month, and 1 day. Under these measures, four categories of information related to insurance sales personnel's credit will be systematically recorded: basic information, professional status information, credit evaluation data, and public credit information.
"Creating a credit profile for insurance sales agents essentially transforms the principle of 'utmost good faith' into a quantifiable, contestable, repairable, and portable professional credit asset, rather than waiting to place them on a blacklist after an incident," said Long Ge, Deputy Director of the Innovation and Risk Management Research Center at the University of International Business and Economics, speaking to The Securities Daily.
The Measures clarify that insurance sales personnel refer to employees, individual insurance agents, and other personnel under alternative employment arrangements who establish a labor or entrustment agency relationship with an insurance institution, complete professional registration, and sell insurance products on behalf of the institution. This also includes personnel engaged in insurance agency activities within insurance agencies and those performing brokerage services within insurance brokerages.
Chen Hui, Director of the China Actuarial Technology Laboratory at Central University of Finance and Economics, told The Securities Daily that the core of the Measures is to use credit records to impose full-chain constraints on sales personnel's professional conduct.
First, establish clear ethical boundaries by prohibiting deceptive practices, misleading information, and concealment. Convert professional ethics into a verifiable credit record.
Second, achieve comprehensive traceability of professional records by including policy continuation rates, surrender rates, complaint rates, disciplinary actions for dishonesty, and public penalties in the file, ensuring that cross-organization movement records are fully traceable.
Third, establish a quantifiable tiered credit evaluation system to shift the focus away from premiums as the sole measure of quality.
Fourth, balance constraints with rights: collect information only with written authorization; establish mechanisms for objection and correction, party statements, and credit repair; and retain the credit file for at least 5 years after the salesperson's employment or agency relationship is terminated.
Fifth, progressively enable the exchange and sharing of credit information across the insurance industry, accept oversight from consumers and the public, and leverage the credit mechanism to enforce compliance in sales practices.
Long Ge stated that in 2023, the insurance regulatory authority issued the "Measures for the Administration of Insurance Sales," which establishes standardized management across the entire sales process. These measures further regulate the creditworthiness of sales agents. Together, these initiatives will shift individual insurance channels from the past extensive recruitment model based on "headcount" to a selective hiring approach focused on "background checks and credit verification," thereby standardizing channel development. For insurance companies, short-term recruitment will become more challenging and system costs may rise; however, leading insurers and trustworthy agents are likely to gain greater "trust dividends."
Chen Hui believes that, in the short term, the Measures will increase recruitment pressure on individual insurance channels and further accelerate the exit of low-quality agents. The downward trend in sales headcount is likely to continue. Credit records will raise implicit entry barriers, curbing job-hopping with unresolved issues; individuals with a history of dishonesty or high complaint rates will find it difficult to remain in the industry. At the same time, building insurer credit systems and handling objections will increase operating costs. In the long term, high-quality professionals will gain a stronger competitive advantage. Salespeople focused solely on short-term profits will be gradually phased out, accelerating the shift away from the "mass recruitment model" toward a more professional and specialized approach. However, smaller insurers may face greater compliance pressures due to challenges in implementing management systems and operational processes.
