Prudential CEO Wells eyes expansion into China

Health protection and retirement savings represent massive growth opportunities on the Chinese market Mike Wells (pictured), the CEO of global life insurer  Prudential, told CNBC in a televised interview.

“The emergent issue” in China following 35 years of the one-child policy “… is the retirees,” Wells said, citing an estimated 300 million or more over the age of 65 in China by 2025. “It’s both a policy issue and a great opportunity for firms like ours.”

With a generation of single-child families facing retirement, Prudential claims “a privatization pillar emerges in both government policy and consumer interest in private retirement support.”

In healthcare, Prudential is developing “what you’d expect” from a company of their profile: “to get health and protection products to a large part of the Chinese population.”

That has not yet spawned a decision to take the healthcare platform Pulse into the Chinese market. “We still haven't announced a version of Pulse or if we are going to do that there,” Wells said. “We are looking at that and there is clearly interest in it given the breadth of its capability in China.”

Regulatory oversight, including where big data is collected and utilized, need not be a hurdle, despite the reputation Chinese authorities have developed for a close grip. Chinese policymakers seem to prefer the discipline foreign players bring to a market dominated by domestic players, Wells suggested.

“I think in most markets, including China, the regulator has targets for insurance penetration and there is a very high expectation for quality and accuracy of the delivery,” Wells said. “There is certainly an expectation in all markets, that [given] our size, scale and leadership position, that we lead on compliance.”

The insurance industry, with foreign players often leading increases in penetration, may gain further policymaker approval for its ability to convert consumer cash into long-term investments, Wells noted.

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