The China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC) has loosened some restrictions on insurance companies' bond investments, but analysts say further liberalization is needed to help them manage risks.

The insurance watchdog responded to the industry's calls for more freedom in using their premium incomes with a new provisional regulation on corporate bond investments on Monday, broadening the investment scope from bonds issued by central government-affiliated enterprises to all businesses with an AA upward credit rating.

Also, insurance companies now can use up to 20 per cent of their total assets to purchase corporate bonds, as compared to a 10 per cent ceiling previously, the commission said.

Such a loosening caters to the needs of China's insurance companies that are seeking more investment tools with "moderate'' levels of both return and risk, said Yan Bin, an analyst with Beijing Securities.

Corporate bonds now stand as a preferable investment option for Chinese insurers with higher yields than Treasury bonds, where they put most of their funds except bank deposits, and low risk levels as there is still no junk bonds in the market.

"AA should be fairly safe,'' Yan said. "And the return should not be too low.''

Premium incomes at China's insurance firms are growing fast, soaring by 32.7 per cent on a year-on-year basis in the first quarter of the year.

But a narrow investment scope -- mainly bank deposits, Treasury bonds, financial bonds and securities funds -- has cramped yields, stoking worries about their payment capability when claims peak. Average investment return dipped to 3.14 per cent last year from 4.3 per cent in 2001 as the stock market tumbled.

Access to a bigger part of the corporate bond market, which is still in its early stages of development with sporadic issuances, is far from solving the problem. Insurances companies's holdings of corporate papers were valued at 18.3 billion yuan (US$2.2 billion) at the end of last year, or a tiny 3.1 per cent of their total investments.

The investment scope Chinese insurance firms wanted included a direct access to the stock market (they now can only invest via securities funds), financial leasing business, consumer loans as well as urban construction projects.

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