Edmond Halley, of comet fame, also created an early actuarial table of life expectancy, allowing policy sellers to estimate their risks. Partly as a result, insurance in the west is a staid, conservative business. In China, it is rather racier. One insurer, Anbang, has amassed so much capital so quickly that the government has intervened, detaining its chairman Wu Xiaohui. A strong, independent insurance regulator would have become involved much earlier.
因哈雷彗星而闻名的埃德蒙?哈雷(Edmond Halley)，也制作了一张早期的生命表，使保险公司得以评估自己的风险。部分出于这个原因，保险在西方是一门古板、保守的生意。在中国，保险业则相当活泼。险企安邦(Anbang)如此迅速地积累了如此多的资本，导致中国政府实施干预，带走了安邦董事长吴小晖。如果有一家强大、独立的保险监管机构，那么它本会早得多出手干预的。
Insurance is big business in China. Premiums there jumped to Rmb3.1tn ($456bn) last year, up 82 per cent in just three years. It should soon surpass Japan’s more established industry as number two worldwide. That surge is not just down to low penetration of insurance products in China. Short-term, high-yielding investment products can masquerade as insurance. Using these, aggressive unlisted insurers such as Anbang and Foresea Life have amassed capital very quickly.
保险在中国是一门大生意。去年，保费收入猛增至3.1万亿元人民币（合4560亿美元），在仅仅3年内增长82%。中国保险业应会很快超过更老牌的日本保险业，成为全球第二。这一跳跃并不仅仅归功于保险产品在中国的普及率低。期限短、收益高的投资产品可以伪装成保险。利用这些产品，安邦和前海人寿(Foresea Life)等咄咄逼人的非上市险企，迅速积累了资本。
Both Anbang and Foresea have funded acquisitions via their insurance businesses for years. Rumours abound of the political connections their chairmen have. True, all insurers need to deploy the capital they accumulate. But Anbang has spent over $10bn in a couple of years on such assets as the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York. The fact that Anbang may well have mismatched its short-term liabilities with long-term, illiquid asset purchases should have been a concern earlier.
多年来，安邦和前海都一直通过保险业务为其并购提供资金。有关这两家公司的董事长拥有政治人脉的传言甚嚣尘上。诚然，所有保险公司都需要将积累的资金花出去。但几年内，安邦在收购纽约华尔道夫酒店(Waldorf Astoria hotel)这类资产上花掉了逾100亿美元。安邦的短期负债与其长期、低流动性资产收购很有可能出现错配，这一事实本该更早引发担忧。
Although the chairman of Foresea’s parent company, Yao Zhenhua, was recently banned for a decade, regulatory oversight has generally been lacking. Xiang Junbo, chairman of insurance regulator CIRC, is himself under investigation for “severe disciplinary violations”.
尽管在不久前，前海人寿母公司的董事长姚振华被罚禁入保险业10年，但总体而言监管监督一直是缺位的。中国保监会(CIRC)主席项俊波本人涉嫌“严重违纪”，正在接受审查。
Another key issue is whether some insurers offer protection at all or simply wealth management products. Some tout very high yields of up to 8 per cent on insurance policies, worries broker CLSA, almost double those on government bonds. Listed insurers, such as Ping An and China Life, too, have these types of product. But at least their diversified shareholder base and regularly published accounts allow more scrutiny.
另一个关键问题是，有些险企到底是提供保障，还是仅仅提供理财产品。有些险企兜售保单的理财收益非常高，高至8%，几乎为政府债券收益率的2倍，这让里昂证券(CLSA)感到担忧。平安(Ping An)和中国人寿(China Life)等上市险企也有这一类型的产品。但起码，它们多元化的股东结构和定期公布的账目，便于外界对其进行更多审视。
Unlike Halley’s comet, financial scandals come around with increasing rapidity. China should forestall problems with stronger independent oversight. More foreign investors might then be emboldened to invest in a sector whose fundamental prospects are good.
跟哈雷彗星不同，金融丑闻出现的频率越来越快。中国应当通过更强大的独立监督，预防问题的发生。那么，更多外国投资者也许就敢于投资基本前景不错的中国保险业了。
Email the Lex team at lex@ft.com
Lex专栏是由FT评论家联合撰写的短评，对全球经济与商业进行精辟分析
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