ABC Life Insurance's High-Quality Development Path: Value as Anchor, Culture as Soul丨Insurance Leaders Forum Column

The “14th Five-Year Plan” period is a critical stage in China’s new journey toward building a modern socialist country. Its core theme is promoting high-quality economic and social development. As the lifeblood of the modern economy, finance’s core mission has shifted from simple scale expansion to serving the real economy, preventing and resolving risks, and promoting social fairness and improving people’s livelihoods.

Life insurance, with its unique functions of long-term capital management, risk protection, and social stability, plays an irreplaceable role in this transformation. Observing the development trajectory of China’s life insurance market, Agricultural Bank of China Life, a state-owned insurer rooted in the strong DNA of the Agricultural Bank of China, is providing a valuable reference model through a series of systematic and forward-looking practices. Its development history is not only a corporate growth story but also a vivid microcosm of deepening reforms in China’s financial system and the exploration of specialized development paths by bank-affiliated insurers.

Aligning with National Strategies

Building a Multi-Level Insurance Service Ecosystem

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High-quality development requires financial supply to precisely align with major national strategies and address weak links in social and people’s livelihoods. Agricultural Bank of China Life’s practices show that its strategic orientation is always closely connected to the national pulse. This is not a passive policy response but an active ecosystem construction.

Strengthening the third pillar of social security to address aging challenges. Facing deep demographic shifts, Agricultural Bank of China Life has elevated pension finance to a strategic core. Its recent launch of the “Agricultural Bank of China Life Centenarian Life (Plan A) Exclusive Commercial Pension Insurance” successfully integrated into the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security’s electronic social security card platform, achieving system linkage, scenario integration, and ecological fusion. Reaching over 1 billion users through a national public service platform, it offers safe, stable, multi-layered protection and flexible investment options, actively supporting the high-quality development of the “third pillar” of pension insurance. It lowers the inclusive threshold and effectively converts personal tax deferral benefits (up to 5,400 yuan annually) into tangible and accessible retirement savings for the public.

Focusing on localized services, demonstrating the people-oriented nature of inclusive finance. The challenge of inclusive finance lies in balancing commercial sustainability with service accessibility. Relying on its parent bank’s natural advantage in deep rural and county-level markets, Agricultural Bank of China Life extends its service network and financial resources to “three rural” areas, new urban residents, and small micro-enterprises, creating a product matrix of “short-term accident + medium-term savings + long-term pension,” such as “Hui Xin Bao” and “Qi Hui Bao,” tailored to specific risk profiles. Additionally, a dual-driven model of “online zones + offline education” is employed—online service zones and “Operation Assistant” enhance efficiency; offline efforts include “rural financial literacy” campaigns to bridge the digital divide. Meanwhile, by investing in agricultural development bonds, local bonds, and other instruments, insurance funds are indirectly injected into food security and rural infrastructure, enabling a full chain from front-end risk protection to back-end capital support for rural revitalization, serving over 21 million customers by 2025.

Leveraging capital attributes, green and technological finance empower national innovation and transformation strategies. Insurance funds, with their large scale, long duration, and stable sources, are ideal long-term capital for supporting technological innovation and green transition. Agricultural Bank of China Life proactively allocates funds toward national strategic sectors, with significant growth in investments in science and technology innovation bonds and green finance products by 2025. On the product side, it has innovatively launched the “Hui Ke Bao” series, providing risk protection for employees of nearly 90 green industry enterprises.

Technology Reshaping Core Operations

Driving Operational and Experience Revolution through Digital Transformation

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In the digital age, technological capability has become a core competitive element for financial enterprises. Agricultural Bank of China Life’s digital transformation is not just scattered technology applications but a fundamental “system project.”

Reconstructing infrastructure to solidify the foundation of digital transformation. By 2025, the bank has launched the “Three Integration Projects” and “Six Major Projects,” aiming to break data silos and build a comprehensive data platform covering the entire business chain. This foundational capability is the prerequisite for all subsequent intelligent applications, demonstrating strategic determination and long-term thinking in its digital transformation.

Smart applications permeate all aspects, enhancing operational efficiency and customer experience. From intelligent insurance advisors “Nongxin An” to RPA robots, AI has been integrated into customer service, underwriting, and operations. Notably, the “Smart Claims” system, through projects like “Micro Claims” and “Kuai e Claim,” enables intelligent case recognition, automatic approval, and real-time payment. With over 93% of claims processed automatically and an average payment cycle of 1.12 days, its key performance indicators rank among the best in the market. This transforms traditional pain points in claims into highlights of customer experience, rebuilding trust in insurance services.

Network security and robustness—new risk defenses empowered by technology. While embracing technology, Agricultural Bank of China Life regards cybersecurity as the lifeline of digital transformation. Strengthening the cybersecurity system is a safeguard during rapid digitalization, ensuring steady progress in innovation.

Cultural Soul

Fostering Soft Power of Chinese Financial Enterprises through “Two Integrations”

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High-quality financial development depends on cultural nourishment and guidance. Agricultural Bank of China Life deeply recognizes that excellent enterprises require not only strong “hard power” but also profound “soft power.”

Theoretical reinforcement and top-level design integrate financial culture into corporate DNA. By 2025, the company systematically studied the spirit of the Central Financial Work Conference, conducted special research projects, and deeply grasped the connotations of “Two Integrations” and Chinese financial culture. The core values of “Integrity in Business, Steady and Far-reaching” are embedded into the corporate culture, along with practical requirements for practicing Chinese financial culture. Specific work plans ensure that cultural development is not just empty slogans but a systematic, actionable project.

Innovative dissemination and local expression make financial culture tangible, understandable, and relatable. Using national style posters, traditional solar terms, classical poetry, and other carriers, Agricultural Bank of China Life visualizes and artistically expresses abstract concepts like practicing Chinese financial culture. Creative reinterpretations of classics like “Dream of the Red Chamber” and “Journey to the West” for anti-fraud campaigns, as well as incorporating shadow puppetry and paper-cutting into public awareness days, cleverly combine traditional Chinese culture with modern financial knowledge, enhancing cultural appeal and dissemination, and elevating brand cultural taste.

Deepening practice and anchoring actions translate cultural requirements into concrete behaviors. The ultimate goal of cultural development is to guide practice. Agricultural Bank of China Life adheres to “Honesty and Trustworthiness,” integrating integrity throughout operations; upholds “Righteousness and Profit,” designing exclusive products and providing door-to-door services for special groups; promotes “Innovation with Integrity,” empowering services through technology; maintains “Steady and Prudent” risk management, earning AA-level comprehensive risk ratings; and complies with laws and regulations, receiving A-level operational evaluations for five consecutive years. These “five坚持” embody the vivid practice of Chinese financial culture in enterprise management, customer service, and risk control, forming a solid barrier for sustainable development.

Operational Excellence and Social Value

Setting Industry Benchmarks for High-Quality Development

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True leadership is not only about scale and speed but also about quality and sustainability. Agricultural Bank of China Life’s balanced achievements in quantity and quality demonstrate its strategic resilience and comprehensive strength during industry transformation.

By 2025, total assets exceed 230 billion yuan, total premiums surpass 46 billion yuan, with operations covering 23 provinces and cities nationwide. Five consecutive years of A-level ratings in corporate governance, internal control, solvency, and business quality are full recognition from regulators. It has also received major industry awards such as “Pioneering and Progressive Insurance Company,” “High-Quality Development Insurance Company,” “Quality Service Insurance Company,” and “Gold Brand Value” in 2025.

Excellent customer experience is the touchstone for service integrity. Agricultural Bank of China Life transforms the “people-centered” philosophy into measurable, perceptible service standards. Customer satisfaction at the counter reaches 100%, and telephone service satisfaction is 99.63%. Its “Smart Claims” system has reduced the average claim payment cycle to 1.12 days, turning the brand promise of “Protecting a Better Life” from an abstract slogan into tangible efficiency and warmth customers can feel at critical moments.

The value of an enterprise ultimately manifests in its contribution to society. Agricultural Bank of China Life consciously integrates social responsibility into its development strategy, achieving a harmonious unity of business and social benefits. It has donated a total insured amount of 4.58 billion yuan to over 76,000 disabled people in nine assistance counties, supports rural revitalization through “Insurance + Consumption” models, and launched “Zhen Ai Bao Bei (2026)” to address critical illness protection for children. These initiatives reflect its deep sense of patriotism as a state-owned enterprise, realizing the unity of commercial and social value.

Looking ahead to the new journey of the “14th Five-Year Plan,” China’s modernization calls for higher standards in financial services for the real economy and improving people’s well-being. Agricultural Bank of China Life’s practices show that only by deeply integrating corporate strategy with national development, reshaping core operational capabilities through technological innovation, and building a solid foundation with excellent financial culture can enterprises navigate economic cycles and advance steadily on the path of high-quality development.

Editor | Xu Chenhui

Reviewer | Bai Xue

Chief Editor | Lan Yinfan