China’s National Financial Regulatory Administration (NFRA) and the Shanghai Municipal People’s Government have jointly rolled out a comprehensive set of policy measures designed to expedite the development of Shanghai as an international reinsurance centre and lift the quality of China’s reinsurance market.
At the heart of the plan sits the Reinsurance Registration and Trading Center, or Shanghai International Reinsurance Exchange, China’s first dedicated reinsurance trading platform. Run by the Shanghai Insurance Exchange, it went live on 26 Oct 2023 in the Lin-gang Special Area of the China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone.
The packages, released last week, set out eight directives to modernise infrastructure and broaden cross-border financial ties, covering institutional structure, market registration, platform trading, capital supply, risk diversification, cross-border cooperation, regulatory oversight, and the overall operating environment.
The first step urges large firms to manage their risk-protection needs within the Lin-gang Special Area of the China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone to match domestic risk with underwriting capacity.
The measures urge domestic insurers to register reinsurance contracts and claims data with the Reinsurance Registration and Trading Center under a single system. The centre will refine its data standards and tighten data classification and security. Both objectives aim to widen use of this data, including for insurance and credit-risk research, to strengthen risk management across China’s insurance industry.
The document also encourages global reinsurers and reinsurance brokers to conduct formal business referral work through the Center to actively attract more foreign insurers to China’s reinsurance market and increase trading volumes on the platform.
Cross-border cooperation is set to grow, with a focus on helping domestic insurers bring in international risk-modelling methods and specialist underwriting skills to build core technical strength.
The measures also outline initiatives for reinsurers to inject capital, expand their shares and tap capital markets by issuing new supplementary capital instruments.
The plan also allows insurers to open dedicated custody and fund-settlement accounts in Lin-gang and to use facilitation policies to invest cross-border ceded income overseas.
It further explores a reinsurance arbitration mechanism in Lin-gang and closer alignment with international commercial rules.
Overall, the eight measures aim to speed growth of the local reinsurance market, lift trading, raise cover for major economic projects and strengthen risk-control frameworks.
In a separate written response, the two authorities said Shanghai’s growth as an international reinsurance hub had already made key phased progress and served as a pillar of the wider Shanghai International Financial Centre plan.
In its first eight months of trading, the Shanghai International Reinsurance Exchange took nearly 4.4bn yuan (approx. US$620m) in premiums and registered 118 institutions with trading rights, 90 of them domestic and 28 from overseas, according to Shanghai government figures published in September 2025.
