What happened
In the first half of 2026, seven listed property and casualty insurers — PICC P&C, CPIC Property, Ping An P&C, Dadi Insurance, ZhongAn, Taiping P&C and Sunshine P&C — all reported combined ratios below the 100% underwriting breakeven line. Six of them improved underwriting profitability, with Taiping the only exception.
The improvement was led by lower expense ratios. Five of the six companies that disclosed expense data reduced their combined expense ratios year over year; Dadi and ZhongAn posted the steepest declines of 2.3 percentage points, while Ping An and PICC fell 1.2 and 0.9 points respectively. CPIC Property was the only listed insurer to achieve simultaneous drops in both expense and loss ratios.
Among the top three, PICC P&C's combined ratio fell 0.8 percentage points to 94.5%, CPIC improved 1.3 points to 95.0%, and Ping An edged down 0.1 point to 95.1%, narrowing their gap to 0.6 points. NEV insurance became a major growth driver: PICC's insured NEV count rose 30.9% year over year, Ping An and CPIC saw NEV premiums climb 21.5% and 20.9% respectively, and ZhongAn's NEV premiums surged 105.7%.
Executives credited external regulatory measures — including auto insurance ``report-act same'' enforcement and a new non-auto insurance governance action plan — combined with internal moves such as ADAS-based pricing, AI claims handling and better NEV repair networks for the improved results.
Why it matters
The broad underwriting recovery signals that the listed P&C industry is shifting away from fee-driven competition and toward pricing and risk-management discipline. With combined ratios clustering near 95%, the top insurers appear to have reached a more stable underwriting footing.
NEV insurance stands out as both a growth engine and a test of insurers' ability to price rapidly evolving technology. The reported declines in accident rates and the push toward granular, data-driven pricing suggest that competitive advantage will increasingly depend on data, AI and ecosystem partnerships rather than traditional distribution scale.
Key facts
All seven listed P&C insurers — PICC P&C, CPIC Property, Ping An P&C, Dadi, ZhongAn, Taiping P&C and Sunshine — reported combined ratios below 100% in H1 2026.
PICC P&C's combined ratio was 94.5%, CPIC's was 95.0%, and Ping An's was 95.1%, a gap of 0.6 percentage points.
Dadi and ZhongAn had the largest combined expense ratio declines at 2.3 percentage points each.
PICC's number of insured NEVs grew 30.9%, while Ping An and CPIC saw NEV premiums rise 21.5% and 20.9%.
ZhongAn's NEV premiums jumped 105.7%, accounting for nearly 36.5% of its total auto premiums.
PICC P&C's auto combined ratio improved to 93.5%, with underwriting profit of 9.917 billion yuan, up 13.6%.
What to watch next
Whether the expense-ratio improvements hold as non-auto insurance governance measures are rolled out in stages and product re-filings are completed by the first quarter of 2027.
How insurers refine NEV pricing using ADAS factors, driving behavior and accident data to keep loss ratios low as NEV penetration rises.
Whether smaller listed players like Dadi, ZhongAn and Sunshine can sustain momentum in NEV insurance despite the dominant market share of the top three.