In July 2025, Jin Chao was approved to serve as the General Manager of “Ping An Pension.” This move comes as Ping An Insurance continues to advance its “bank + insurance” strategy. Prior to this, Ping An Pension has been gradually downsizing 19 central support companies since the second quarter of this year. Analysts see this as a strategic optimization and transformation for Ping An Pension to survive in the current economic challenges faced by China’s pension insurance industry.
On July 30, the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission issued the official approval for Jin Chao to assume the position of General Manager of Ping An Pension Insurance Co., Ltd. This personnel change signals a new round of management restructuring for Ping An Pension.
Public records show that Jin Chao has held key positions in institutions such as China Merchants Bank and Ping An Bank. This transfer follows Ping An Group’s consistent strategy in recent years of strengthening the integration of banking and insurance businesses through senior executive appointments.
Analysts suggest that Jin Chao’s appointment aims to further promote the coordination of pension fund management services with the group’s banking wealth management, private banking, and asset management platforms, enhancing the depth and stickiness of customer service.
According to the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission’s approval and filing documents, as of mid-July 2025, Ping An Pension has revoked central support companies in five locations including Cangzhou, Chengde, Tianshui, Zhumadian, and Mianyang. Another 14 central support companies are in the process of being phased out, pending completion of subsequent regulatory disclosures.
The company has not publicly commented on the closure of these branches, although it is speculated that the institutions are predominantly located in non-core cities with limited business volume and insufficient profit potential.
Analysis by “21st Century Economic Report” indicates that in recent years, several leading pension insurers including Taikang Pension and China Life Pension have initiated organizational slimming strategies of “increasing core business while reducing peripheral activities,” reflecting the industry’s shift from extensive expansion to refined operations in the face of China’s economic challenges.
The closure of 19 central support companies by Ping An Pension can be seen as both a strategic optimization and efficiency enhancement at the company level, but it also serves as an external response to the current economic downturn in China.
According to Ping An Pension’s first-quarter 2025 solvency report, the company achieved insurance business revenue of 5.507 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 18.67%. However, during the same period, net profit defied the trend by increasing 61.92% to reach 808 million yuan, positioning the company among the top performers in the industry. Profit improvement mainly stemmed from two factors: a rebound in investment returns in equity assets and cost reduction through branch closures and operational expense cuts.
However, looking at the annual data, traditional businesses are facing downward pressure. In 2024, the company’s original insurance premium income was 16.595 billion yuan, a 4.2% decrease year-on-year; net profit was -3.722 billion yuan, with losses primarily attributable to the vacuum left after the exit of short-term high-yield products.
At the end of 2023, the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission expressly required pension insurance companies to return to the “fundamental purpose of pension security,” leading Ping An Pension to discontinue its reliance on short-term high-yield wealth management products.
This background signifies that the business expansion model reliant on wealth management products is no longer sustainable, prompting the company to shift from “scale expansion” to “value creation,” though this transition is still in its infancy.
Despite having sufficient solvency indicators, with a comprehensive solvency adequacy ratio of 333.48% as of the end of the first quarter of 2025, well above regulatory minimum requirements, Ping An Pension still holds a risk composite rating of C due to:
1. 78 legal cases in the first quarter of 2025, representing a 40% year-on-year increase.
2. Being penalized 12 times by regulatory authorities in the first half of the year, with cumulative fines totaling 2.17 million yuan, involving issues such as failure to provide explanations and false data.
3. According to data from the “Black Cat Complaints” platform, complaint volumes in 2025 increased by 45% year-on-year, with 68% transforming into legal proceedings.
Against the backdrop of the continuous advancement of the individual pension system pilot, the growth rate of Ping An Pension accounts lags behind the industry average.
According to statistics from “China Fund News,” the number of corporate pension clients decreased by 8% compared to the end of 2024. On the individual pension side, the number of account openings increased by only 3.2% compared to the end of 2024, with an average annual payment per person of less than 3,000 yuan, far below the long-term development goals set by national policies. Ping An Pension’s market share in individual pensions has slipped from third place in 2023 to seventh place in 2024.
Meanwhile, the company’s progress in the construction of the “insurance + healthcare” ecosystem has been slow. In comparison, Taikang Pension added 12,000 new elderly care community beds in 2025, demonstrating a significantly superior service capacity. Ping An Pension has yet to establish a sizable physical network, with the number of nursing staff being only about one-third of Taikang’s. Industry experts believe that the inadequate service capacity will continue to limit its potential expansion in the high-end elderly care market.
The transformation dilemma faced by Ping An Pension is not an isolated case. In fact, the entire professional pension insurance industry is encountering similar challenges.
Information from the Beijing United Property Exchange shows that as early as July 2024, DaJia Pension Insurance Co., Ltd., founded in 2019, listed 3.3 billion shares for transfer, accounting for 100% of the total share capital.
According to a report by Southern Finance and Economics multimedia reporter Lin Hanyao, DaJia Pension’s core solvency adequacy ratio and comprehensive solvency adequacy ratio stand at 386.93% and 403.51%, respectively, well above regulatory minimum standards. However, the company has incurred consecutive losses in the past two years.
In 2022 and 2023, DaJia Pension reported losses of 132 million yuan and 159 million yuan, respectively. Based on the first-quarter 2024 solvency report, the company registered a loss of 137 million yuan at the end of the first quarter. An industry source informed the “21st Century Economic Report” that under the current circumstances, DaJia Pension’s losses are persisting and worsening.
An investigation by the “21st Century Economic Report” revealed that in the first quarter of 2024, among the nine professional pension insurance companies in China, five made profits while four incurred losses. Taikang Pension led in losses with 1.184 billion yuan, followed by DaJia Pension with a loss of 137 million yuan, New China Pension with a loss of 13 million yuan, and Heng An Standard Pension with a loss of 4 million yuan.