China's insurers had invested $239.55bn in overseas markets by the end of 2014, accounting for 1.44% of the total assets of the country's insurance industry, according to Zhou Yanli, vice chairman of the China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC).
The largest part of overseas investment was made up of equity investment, especially in the Hong Kong market, said Zhou, who was quoted by the China News Service. About 20% of the overseas investment was for real estate projects, he said.
The CIRC appears to regard Hong Kong, a special administrative region of China, as an overseas market.
Zhou added that CIRC was closely watching potential risks in the global financial markets and said that CIRC would warn insurance institutions to prevent large losses.
At the start of 2014 CIRC loosened the regulations for insurers' investments, expanding the scale and reducing some of the thresholds (see IAR, 30 April 2014, China opens up opportunities for insurance asset management).