THE chairman of China’s top insurance regulator vowed to impose “stringent” rules and “severely” punish short-term speculation by insurers, the latest sign of tightening controls on the nation’s industry.

    The watchdog will also curb “aggressive” pricing and the “unreasonably” high returns of some insurance products, Xiang Junbo, chairman of the China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC), told reporters in Beijing on Wednesday. Insurers shouldn’t attempt to interfere in the management of listed companies, Xiang said.

    The CIRC “will never allow insurance to become a rich man’s club, let alone allow financial crocodiles to use insurance as their channel or hideout,” Xiang said. Any insurer that “challenges the regulatory bottom line, tarnishes the industry’s image or harms the people’s interest” will be driven out of the market, he said.

    The regulator since last year has tightened curbs on investment-type policies and restricted insurers’ acquisitions of listed companies, seeking to rein in systemic risk. Rapid sales of such products, typically short-term, in recent years have heightened liquidity risks, and some smaller insurers used the proceeds to embark on a buying binge in the stock market, embroiling developer China Vanke Co. in a tussle for control.(SD-Agencies)