China's largest property insurer has been given approval to set up an insurance asset management company (AMC).
A China Insurance Regulatory Commission spokesman yesterday said approval had been granted to People's Insurance Co of China (PICC) recently.
PICC is the second insurer in China to win the official green light, following China Life Insurance, the mainland's biggest life insurer.
Details of how insurance AMCs operate are still sketchy, but elsewhere they are meant to be specialised independent units established to maximise returns on their premium income.
Analysts said the move was taken as a gradual and overall liberalisation of insurers' investment options, partly to alleviate the problem insurers faced of insufficient investment returns to match guarantees made to policyholders.
Insurers in China face stringent curbs on investment activities.