友邦保险集团首席执行官兼总裁LEE Yuan Siong：人寿保险业如何助力可持续未来？

我是友邦保险集团首席执行官兼总裁。友邦保险是全球市值最大的人寿保险和健康保险集团之一。我们的总部位于香港，专注于亚洲的18个增长型市场。上海是我们的诞生地，我们的起源可追溯到一个多世纪前的外滩。今年年初，我们在上海进行了友邦保险有史以来最大规模的房地产投资，投资额超过10亿美元。在我们在亚洲的发展历程中，我们建立了可持续发展的业务，在多次经济和政治不稳定时期都经久不衰，为我们所服务的经济体和社区提供支持。

今天，我将重点谈谈人寿和健康保险业在帮助建设可持续未来方面所发挥的作用。许多相同的原则也适用于财产和意外伤害保险业，但人寿保险是最普遍适用的保险产品。人寿保险与每一个人都息息相关。

几乎每个人都以这样或那样的形式依赖他人的收入，或者有依赖其收入的受抚养人。从历史上看，这些需求都是由大家庭来满足的。然而，随着经济的发展、城市化进程的加快和人们离家工作，紧密联系的家庭支持系统往往会被削弱。这反过来又与瓦解了传统的大家庭在疾病、事故和养老方面所提供的福利有关，从而导致保险所满足的客户需求范围迅速扩大，最明显的是人寿和健康保险、退休收入、养老院费用和教育费用等。

像友邦保险这样的人寿保险，其核心目的是为千百万家庭提供急需的经济保障，使他们安心。我们收取保险费以换取社会保障。与此同时，我们还进行长期投资，为这些合同下的承诺提供资金。

人寿保险公司利用其规模和专业投资知识，为投保人提供比个人投资者更好的风险调整投资回报和更多的资本市场准入机会。我们投资的正净流量和长期性质，为整个经济体的资本市场提供了深度和稳定性，补充了银行贷款的短期性质。

在全球范围内，人寿保险和养老金行业拥有最多的储蓄和潜在投资。例如，在中国，随着监管改革的持续深入和保险业的发展，保险资产从2011年的6万亿元增长到今年的29万亿元，增长了近五倍，其中人寿保险占总资产的绝大部分。

通常，人寿保险将高达一半的资产配置用于政府债券，并可占所有公共债务所有权的40%。这通常会转化为对政府主导的投资和基础设施项目的支持，从而推动实体经济的高质量增长。通过这种方式，我们既提供了社会福利，又促进了经济发展，从而创造了共同价值。

我们的业务还具有多代同堂的性质。可持续发展是我们运营的重中之重。通过更好地看待短期市场波动，保险业对金融体系具有稳定的影响，在经济压力时期增强了市场韧性，为经济和人民的长期需求提供了结构性支持。最终，长期投资的稳步积累和部署通过增加市场深度、减少波动性和降低系统性风险形成了良性循环，这反过来又鼓励了更多有助于建设可持续未来的长期投资。

在过去的25年里，亚洲部分地区享受了人口红利，这有助于推动经济增长。在未来二十年里，这种人口红利将成为负担，正如我们已经在日本和韩国所看到的那样。未来，政府在照顾越来越多的老年人口方面将不堪重负。私人购买保险是有效预防这些终身意外的关键因素。然而，在人寿保险和医疗保险、养老金、年金等方面还存在巨大的保障缺口。因此，我们的行业能否在弥补这些差距和为可持续的未来提供资金方面发挥更大的作用，取决于实现我们雄心壮志的支持力度。

就中国大陆而言，我认为可以在三个方面进一步加强。

第一，继续鼓励以市场为导向的商业环境，鼓励本国和外国投资，以促进实体经济的发展。我们非常赞赏多年来为加快开放和加强金融服务而进行的改革。这使得外国投资者能够在中国设立专门的全资子公司。友邦保险是第一家在上海设立分公司的境外保险公司。我们将继续投资，并通过在新的省份开拓业务来扩大我们在中国的业务发展。如果有扩展业务的机会，像我们这样的公司就能推动更多的资本形成，将更多的投资引入本地市场。消费者也能获得优质解决方案，满足他们的财富和保护需求，并促进更多的国内消费。

其次，保险业为私营公司提供了公平竞争的环境，这大大减轻了国家福利制度的潜在压力，特别是在医疗保健和老年人支持方面。日益激烈的竞争还能带动更多的就业，提高人才库的质量，扩大产品范围以及市场渗透率，从而使消费者、政府和整个社会受益。

这需要带来投资专业知识等技术知识，以及风险管理和资产分配方面的最佳实践，并为社会中最弱势的成员提供优质的支持和金融教育。这一点在气候变化问题上尤为重要。长期投资者了解以可持续方式投资社会未来的好处。因此，他们有责任利用投资界的规模和影响力来帮助应对气候变化、促进可持续投资。

在友邦保险，令我自豪的是，我们已经完成了对煤矿和燃煤发电行业的投资，并正在践行我们结合基于科学的目标倡议来实现温室气体净零排放的承诺。我确信，通过加强公共和私营部门之间的合作，我们的行业可以在促进可持续经济增长方面发挥更重要的作用。

最后，促进创新和包容性的渐进式监管框架具有重要作用。通过加强创新，该行业还可以接触到更多具有更多样化长期需求或财务背景的客户。在适当情况下，新的风险管理工具和资产类别可以帮助保险公司为客户提供更全面的计划，以在市场或经济不确定性时期保持财务弹性。

此外，随着越来越多的人采用长期财务计划，包括养老金制度第三支柱的发展，提供者将需要获得更多的长期资产，以帮助客户在退休后保障其生计和福祉。上海是世界上首屈一指的全球资产管理中心之一，完全有能力在引入更多支持长期投资和风险管理工具的政策方面发挥带头作用。

最后，私营部门将在帮助政府减轻其在国家福利负担方面发挥越来越重要的作用，并将帮助客户、保险公司和政府实现长期的共同利益。这是对保险业的号召。我们在努力加强本行业在建设可持续未来方面所发挥的重要作用，非常感谢大家对我们的信任。

Good afternoon. It’s my pleasure to be here today. As requested by the Organizing Committee, I will speak in English. I would like to begin by commending the Organizing Committee of the Global Asset Management Forum on their success in convening a platform that fosters greater dialogue and international collaboration.

By way of introduction, I’m AIA Group’s Chief Executive and President. AIA is one of the largest life and health insurance in the world by market capitalization.We are headquartered in Hong Kong and focus exclusively in Asia across 18 growth markets. Shanghai is our home and we trace our origins back to the Bund more than a century ago. Early this year, we made AIA’s largest ever real estate investment of over 1 billion US dollars in Shanghai. Over the course of our history in Asia, we have built a sustainable business that has endured throughout many periods of economic and political uncertainty, while supporting the economies and communities we serve.

Today, I will focus my remarks on the life and health insurance industry’s role in helping build a sustainable future. Many of the same principles apply to the property and casualty insurance industry, but life insurance is the most universally applicable insurance product. It touches everyone, every individual.

Nearly everyone in one form or another is either dependent on another person’s income or has dependents relying on their income. Historically, these needs have been met by the extended family. However, as economies develop, the close knit family support systems tend to weaken as urbanization increases and people move away from home for work. This in turn is linked to the breakdown of traditional extended family provision of welfare in sickness, accident and old age, which leads to a rapid expansion in the range of customer needs that insurance exists to meet, most obviously, life and health insurance, retirement income, care home costs, education fees, etc.

The core purpose of life insurance like AIA is to provide the much needed financial protection and bring peace of mind to millions of families. We collect insurance premiums in exchange for social protection. And at the same time, make long-term investments to finance the promises made under these contracts.

Life companies use the scale and professional investment expertise to offer policyholders better risk adjusted investment returns and greater access to capital markets than they will be able to achieve as individual investors. The positive net flows and the long-term nature of our investments, lend depth and stability to the capital markets throughout the entire economy, complementing the short-term nature of bank lending.

Globally, the largest pools of savings and potential investments are held by the life insurance and pensions industries. For instance, in China, as regulatory reforms have continued and the insurance industry has developed, insurance assets have increased nearly five-fold from RMB 6 trillion in 2011 to RMB 29 trillion this year, with life insurance representing the vast majority of total assets.

Typically, life insurance devote up to half of the asset allocation to government bonds, and can account for up to 40% of all public debt ownership. Often, this translates into support for government led investment and infrastructure projects that drives high quality growth of the real economy. In this way, we create shared value by advancing both social welfare provision and economic development.

Our business is also multi-generational in nature. And sustainability is at the forefront of how we operate. By being a better place to look through short-term market volatility, the industry has a stabilizing influence on the financial system, increasing market resilience at the times of financial stress, offering structural support to the long-term needs of the economy and the people that power it. Ultimately, the steady accumulation and deployment of long-term investments creates a virtuous circle by delivering more depth to the market, reducing volatility and lowering systemic risks, which in turn encourages more long-term investment that helps with building a sustainable future.

Over the past 25 years, parts of Asia have enjoyed a demographic tailwind that has helped propel economic growth. Over the next two decades, this tailwind will become a headwind as we are already seeing in Japan and Korea. The future burden on governments to care for population moving more and more towards old age can be overwhelming. Privately purchased insurance is a key element of effective provision against these lifetime contingencies. However, huge protection gaps exists in terms of life and health insurance, pensions, annuities, and so on. So our industry’s ability to play an even greater role in bridging these gaps and funding a sustainable future depends on the extent of the support to achieve our ambitions.

In the context of Mainland of China, I see three conditions that can be further strengthened.

Firstly, continuing to encourage a market oriented business environment that welcomes local and foreign investment for the benefit of the real economy. We are greatly appreciative of the reforms undertaken over many years to accelerate the opening up and strengthening of financial services. This has enabled foreign investors to establish dedicated wholly owned subsidiaries in China. AIA was the first insurer headquartered outside of the Mainland to establish a subsidiary here in Shanghai. And we continue to invest and growing our presence across China by expanding into new provinces. Given the opportunity to expand, companies like us can drive greater capital formation, channeling increase investments into the local market. Consumers also gain access to high quality solutions, meeting their wealth and protection needs, and promoting greater domestic consumption.

Secondly, an insurance sector that offers a level playing field for private companies significantly reduces the potential strain on state welfare systems, particularly in health care and elderly support. Increased competition also drives greater employment, raises the quality of the talent pool, increases the range of product offerings, and expands market penetration in ways that benefit consumers, the government and society as a whole.

This entails bringing technical know-how such as investment expertise, best practices in risk management and asset allocation, and delivering high quality support and financial education to the most vulnerable members of society. Nowhere is this more important than in the issue of climate change. Long-term investors appreciate the merits of investing in the future of society sustainably. Hence, they have a responsibility to use the scale and influence in the investment community to help respond to climate change and promote sustainable investing.

At AIA, I am proud that we have completed our investment from coal mining and coal fired powered sectors and are in the process of validating our commitment to achieving net zero greenhouse gas emissions in conjunction with the science based targets initiative. I’m certain that our industry can play a much more important role in facilitating sustainable economic growth through greater collaboration between the public and private sector.

Finally, I will mention the importance of a progressive regulatory framework that fosters innovation and inclusion. Through greater innovation, the industry can also reach more customers with more diverse long-term needs or financial backgrounds. In the right setting, new risk management tools and asset classes can help insurers provide customers with more comprehensive plans to keep their finances resilient through periods of market or economic uncertainty.

Additionally, with the growing adoption of long-term financial plans, including the development of the third pillar of the pension system, providers will need more access to long-term assets to help customers protect their livelihoods and well-being into retirement. Shanghai is one of the world’s premier global asset management centers, is well positioned to lead the way in introducing more supportive policies for long-term investment and risk management tools.

In closing, the private sector will play an increasingly significant role in helping to relieve the burden of state welfare on governments, and will help enable customers, insurers and governments bring about shared benefits over the long-term. This is a rallying call for the insurance industry. We are grateful for the trust placed in us as we work to strengthen the important role our industry plays in building a sustainable future.

Thank you.