China's insurance sector reported a premium income of 139.3 billion yuan in 1999, up 10 percent from 1998, the head of the China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC) said in Beijing on January 24.

Among these premiums, 52.1 billion yuan was from property insurance, up nearly three percent from 1998, and 87.2 billion yuan from life and health insurance, up 15 percent.

Insurers paid out 28 billion yuan in liabilities on property policies and 23 billion yuan for life and health policies.

Ma Yongwei, chairman of the CIRC, attributed the stable growth of the insurance sector to the regulators' efforts to improve market order.

Last year, 19 foreign and domestic insurance firms and brokers received sanctions from the CIRC, and illegal brokerages were shutdown. At the same time, 58,000 part-time agents were re-registered nationwide.

The legal framework for insurance regulation was further improved in 1999. The CIRC issued new regulations on the administration of insurance firms, a regulatory index on solvency capacity, and guidelines for in-house control by insurance firms.

After consecutive interest-rate cuts by the central bank, the CIRC stopped sales of life insurance policies with high interest kick-backs, and promoted the development of new products with fewer interest-rate risks.

The CIRC also gave approval to insurance firms to buy bonds of selected state-owned enterprises and to invest in securities investment funds, thus opening new investment channels for insurance companies. (Xinhua)