China Insurance Association Sets 1.9% Benchmark Rate for Ordinary Life Insurance Products

The 1.9% research value matters less as a hard rule than as a pricing anchor: it signals where the industry's own experts see sustainable assumed rates, which directly shapes how insurers design and price ordinary life products. Insurers weighing guaranteed-return offerings against competing savings vehicles are the most immediately affected, since the reference constrains how generous product illustrations can credibly be. Whether this benchmark holds through subsequent quarterly meetings, and how closely insurers hew to it in actual product filings, is the open question.