Has China Merchants Bank Li Gongzheng been "airlifted" to China Merchants Trust & Nuo, causing the foreign shareholder Cigna's voice to be sidelined?

Ask AI · Did the slowdown in CMC’s performance accelerate the entry of executives from the CMB system?

Recently, CMC announced its intention to hire veteran Li Gongzheng from the “CMB system” as the company’s general manager. If his qualifications are approved, this joint venture life insurance company will welcome its first general manager directly from CMB. With the chairman and general manager positions being taken over by veterans from the CMB system, the influence of China Merchants Bank on this joint venture life insurance company is quietly “increasing.”

CMC welcomes its first general manager with a background from China Merchants Bank.

On March 25, according to Economic Observer News, CMC Life Insurance Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “CMC”) internally announced that the original general manager, Chang Ying, resigned from his position. At the same time, CMC intends to appoint Li Gongzheng as general manager.

It is noteworthy that CMB and the U.S. Cigna Group (hereinafter referred to as “Cigna”) have maintained a management balance for many years. At the executive level, the general manager position has always been filled by external selection, and CMB has never assigned internal personnel to this role. Currently, only one vice president has a CMB background.

However, this situation has now changed. The successor, Li Gongzheng, is currently the president of CMB’s Nanchang branch and has worked within the CMB system for many years. In 2022, he served as the general manager of CMB’s inter-bank client department and became the president of the Nanchang branch in November 2023.

From the perspective of premium income, in 2025, this “star company” began to show signs of fatigue. According to CMC’s fourth-quarter solvency report released for 2025, CMC achieved an insurance business revenue of 44.631 billion yuan for the entire year, a year-on-year increase of only 7.53%, with the growth rate declining by more than 12 percentage points compared to 2024.

Compared to its peers, in 2025, bank-affiliated insurance companies achieved rapid premium growth, with 10 companies collectively generating insurance business revenue of 477.515 billion yuan, an increase of 15.29% compared to 414.195 billion yuan in 2024. Among them, CMC’s peer under the China Merchants Group, CMB Renhe, achieved insurance business revenue of 17.957 billion yuan in 2025, a year-on-year increase of 17.36%.

********“CMB System”********Influence Growing

On March 25, according to Economic Observer News, CMC announced internally that the original general manager and CEO, Chang Ying, applied to resign from the positions of general manager and CEO due to “reaching the age for leadership turnover,” and this has been approved by the board of directors.

At the same time, CMC intends to appoint Li Gongzheng as general manager and CEO, but his qualifications are pending approval from the National Financial Supervisory Administration.

The most concerning aspect of this personnel adjustment in the industry is that the long-standing management balance between the shareholders since CMC’s establishment is about to be broken.

As a joint venture life insurance company with CMB and Cigna each holding a 50% stake, CMC has maintained a delicate balance in management rights and responsibilities between the two major shareholders.

The personnel appointed by CMB occupy three seats on the board and appoint the chairman, while Cigna also occupies three seats and appoints the vice chairman.

At the executive level, the general manager position has always been filled by external selection, and CMB has never assigned internal personnel to this position. Prior to this personnel adjustment, only one vice president in the company’s executive team had a CMB background.

For example, Chang Ying, who resigned from the general manager position, had previously served for a long time at China British Life Insurance, where he held the positions of vice general manager, chief actuary, and chief marketing officer. He only became the general manager of CMC at the end of 2021.

The proposed successor, Li Gongzheng, is a seasoned veteran who has been deeply involved in the CMB system for many years, possessing extensive experience in bank management and inter-bank coordination.

Public records show that Li Gongzheng has worked within the CMB system, serving in various roles including assistant general manager and vice general manager of the human resources department at CMB headquarters, a member of the party committee and vice president of the Tianjin branch, and vice president of the Shenzhen branch. He served as the general manager of CMB’s inter-bank client department in 2022 and officially became the president of CMB’s Nanchang branch in November 2023.

In addition to the general manager, CMC also underwent a change in chairman. In December 2025, CMB’s vice president Wang Ying replaced Wang Xiaoqing as the chairman of CMC.

Compared to Wang Xiaoqing, who only joined CMB in 2020, Wang Ying has been rooted in the CMB system for 28 years since entering in early 1997. She became the vice president of CMB in November 2023 and is currently the only female vice president of CMB, overseeing retail business and other sectors.

It is worth noting that, from her resume, Wang Ying has served as the president of CMB’s Tianjin branch and Shenzhen branch, while Li Gongzheng has served as vice president in both branches.

Now, with Chang Ying officially leaving and Li Gongzheng, who has a background in the CMB system, proposed as general manager, both core management positions of chairman and general manager at CMC may be held by key personnel who have been deeply involved in the CMB system for many years.

Changes atCMC

As a “bank-affiliated” insurance company, CMC is highly dependent on the bancassurance channel.

According to a rating report by United Ratings, from 2022 to 2024, CMC’s bancassurance business accounted for 77.30%, 82.78%, and 83.84% of its total business, respectively. Among them, CMB’s contribution to the premium income from the bancassurance channel has consistently remained above 95%.

Backed by the “King of Retail,” CMB, CMC has been on a rapid growth trajectory since its establishment, with premium income steadily climbing. Data shows that from 2022 to 2024, its insurance business revenue reached 26.519 billion yuan, 34.645 billion yuan, and 41.483 billion yuan, with year-on-year growth rates of 21.55%, 30.64%, and 19.74%, respectively.

However, aside from the bancassurance channel, the company’s other agency channels mainly consist of indirect telemarketing business in cooperation with bank credit card centers.

Due to tightened regulatory policies and adjustments to the strategic development of credit card business at the channel end, CMC gradually suspended the telemarketing model in cooperation with credit card centers in 2024, leading to a significant decline in both the scale and proportion of premium income from other agency channels.

In this context, in 2025, this “star company” began to show signs of fatigue. According to CMC’s fourth-quarter solvency report for 2025, the company achieved insurance business revenue of 44.631 billion yuan for the entire year, a year-on-year increase of only 7.53%, with the growth rate declining by more than 12 percentage points compared to 2024.

In comparison, bank-affiliated insurance companies achieved rapid premium growth in 2025, with 10 companies collectively generating insurance business revenue of 477.515 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 15.29% compared to 414.195 billion yuan in 2024.

Additionally, CMC has exhibited a phenomenon of rising revenue without increasing profits in recent years. In 2020, CMC’s net profit reached 1.630 billion yuan, marking a recent peak. However, it then plummeted, with net profits of 1.183 billion yuan, 733 million yuan, 425 million yuan, and 536 million yuan from 2021 to 2024, with year-on-year growth rates of -27.42%, -38.04%, -42.02%, and 26.12%.

Entering 2025, CMC’s profits surged significantly. Data showed that CMC’s net profit reached 3.312 billion yuan, achieving an astonishing growth rate of 517.91%.

However, the significant increase in CMC’s net profit may be related to adjustments in new accounting standards. In the third quarter of 2025, CMC’s single-quarter net profit reached 1.573 billion yuan, significantly higher than 140 million yuan in the first quarter, 145 million yuan in the second quarter, and 109 million yuan in the fourth quarter.

In this regard, United Ratings also stated that starting in 2025, CMC is implementing new accounting standards for insurance contracts and new financial instruments, which affects the comparability of third-quarter financial data.

Specifically, the introduction of the Contractual Service Margin (CSM) by the new standards essentially represents unrealized profits from insurance contracts, serving as a “profit reservoir” and is a core item affecting net profit.

Therefore, one of the main sources of the dramatic profit increase in the third quarter is the concentrated amortization of existing policy CSM and the one-time release of historical stock profits after the switch to the new standards.

Regarding solvency, by the end of the fourth quarter, the company’s core solvency adequacy ratio was 129.93%, and the comprehensive solvency was 203.24%, decreasing by 8.58 percentage points and 7.63 percentage points from the end of the third quarter, respectively, and down by 15.41 percentage points and 24.69 percentage points from the beginning of the year.

**Competitors Closing In

While experiencing slowed growth in its own business, CMC is also facing increasing pressure from competitors.

In 2017, CMB Renhe formally resumed trading and opened for business, established by the China Merchants Group as the main initiator and largest shareholder, jointly set up with several state-owned enterprises, becoming another life insurance company under the “CMB system,” on par with CMB.

According to reports, from the strategic intent of China Merchants, it was hoped to form a complementary pattern of “CMC focusing on the joint venture high-end market, and CMB Renhe deepening the local inclusive market,” thus completing the group’s comprehensive layout in the life insurance sector.

However, in actual operations, the two life insurance companies, both belonging to the China Merchants system, quickly fell into close competition. After its establishment, as an internal entity of China Merchants Group, CMB inevitably had to open its channel resources and allocate network share for it.

According to a rating report by United Ratings, from 2022 to 2024, the contribution of CMB Renhe’s bank agency channels to its original premium income was 87.64%, 87.24%, and 86.51%, respectively. Among them, in 2023, the contribution of CMB’s channel premium income was about 56%.

Data shows that within six months of its opening, CMB Renhe achieved insurance business revenue of 371 million yuan; its business scale surged significantly in 2018, with insurance business revenue rising to 2.755 billion yuan; by 2019 it entered the “billion club,” with insurance business revenue reaching 10.483 billion yuan. By 2024, the company’s insurance business revenue surged to 15.301 billion yuan.

Notably, in 2024, for the sake of cost control and optimizing channel concentration, CMB Renhe actively reduced the scale of CMB’s business, with the contribution of CMB’s premium income falling to about 28%.

Additionally, CMB Renhe has collaborated with several state-owned banks, rural commercial banks, and joint-stock banks to conduct business, with the contribution of state-owned banks being around 46% and rural commercial banks around 25% in 2024.

In this context, in 2025, CMB Renhe achieved insurance business revenue of 17.957 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 17.36%, far exceeding the growth rate of CMC.

If CMB Renhe’s establishment was a resource competition among peers, then the policy changes in the bancassurance channel in 2024 were a direct blow to CMC’s bancassurance channel.

For a long time, CMC has been overly reliant on the single channel of CMB. However, after the “1+3” distribution restrictions were lifted in 2024, the variety of products available for sale greatly increased, shifting the channel selection power entirely towards the banks.

In the context of narrowing interest margins, need for intermediary income, and tightening regulation, banks began to favor recommending products from larger insurance companies with better cost-performance ratios and stronger brand presence.

According to statistics from Zhongbao Xinzhi, the premium income of Ping An Life’s bancassurance channel increased by 163% year-on-year, while the premium income of PICC Life’s bancassurance channel grew by 60%; the year-on-year growth of the bancassurance channels for Taiping Life and China Life also exceeded 40%.

In this context, this management change may be a key step in seeking a breakthrough for development.

Editor | Chen Bin