China to relax rules to boost big insurers' expansion: sources

Hong Kong

CHINA'S insurance regulator is considering an industry shake-up that could see the biggest and most solvent firms resuming an overseas expansion, while smaller, riskier insurers would come under tighter scrutiny.

The plan being discussed would see the China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC) move from a one-size-fits-all regulatory framework to a regime calibrated to insurers' assets, solvency ratios and risk tolerance, four people with knowledge of the talks told Reuters.

It forms part of a broader push by the CIRC to clean up the world's second-largest insurance sector amid concern that rampant expansion by many smaller firms has caused rising systemic risk in the financ…