In response to rapid development in the field of FinTech and in order to encourage insurers to provide a diverse array of online insurance products and online insurance services, the FSC, under the premise of paying balanced attention to the needs for technical innovation and risk management, has continued to consider the possibility of further deregulation since adopting the "Directions for Insurance Enterprises Engaging in Online Insurance Business" in 2014. On 29 September 2022 the FSC again eased restrictions on the types of products and services that insurers are allowed to sell online, and began allowing them to use a wider range of customer identity verification methods. Key points of the amended provisions are as follows:
1.To provide consumers an insurance purchase channel that enables them to plan out their medical insurance needs more quickly and conveniently, the list of life insurance product types that may be purchased online has been expanded to include per diem hospitalization insurance. Also, in order to guard against moral hazard and adverse selection, a newly added provision requires that when a customer seeks to purchase an insurance policy, the sum of per diem coverage obtained by the applicant from all insurers must not exceed a specified maximum.
2.In response to the development of an increasingly diverse range of identity verification techniques, in addition to the one-time password (OTP) method that insurers have been using until this time to verify identity when they sell insurance online or handle online insurance services, insurers are now additionally allowed to use biometrics, mobile ID, and financial FidO.
3.To make it more convenient for insurance customers to access online insurance services, the list of life insurance products for which services can be accessed online has been expanded to include investment-linked annuity insurance, while the list of group insurance products for which services can be accessed online has been expanded to include queries of claim settlement records and reporting of insured events.