Interview: Insurance brokerage license acquired at good time: ERGO China CEO

Jürgen Schmitz, chief executive officer of ERGO China, speaks during an interview with Xinhua in Beijing, capital of China, Nov. 22, 2023. (Xinhua/Wang Pu)

BEIJING, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) — ERGO-FESCO Broker Company Limited (ERGO-FESCO) has acquired the valuable insurance brokerage license in China at a very good time, said Jürgen Schmitz, chief executive officer of its parent company ERGO China.

“As a popular Chinese saying goes, ‘right time, right place and people’ are crucial factors,” Schmitz, who is set to be chairman of ERGO-FESCO, told Xinhua in an exclusive interview.

ERGO-FESCO was among the foreign-funded insurance brokerage companies that received regulatory approval to set up in Beijing on Nov. 7 of this year, according to the National Financial Regulatory Administration.

It has received authorization to conduct insurance brokerage businesses, including working on insurance plans for policyholders as well as reinsurance brokerage, in the Chinese mainland.

Schmitz noted the health insurance market has developed rapidly in China. Customers demand for health insurance products and health services is more and more diversified, and one-stop health insurance services have become a development trend, he added.

Meanwhile, government healthcare policies and resources continue to improve and innovate, so that companies can better provide customers with tailored care and service plans, he said.

In its strategy “Ambition 2025,” ERGO, one of the major insurance companies in Germany and Europe, regards China as one of its main strategic investment markets.

“It demonstrates our long-term commitment to the Chinese market as well as our confidence in China’s insurance sector,” he added.

In recent years, the city of Beijing has taken concrete measures to expand high-level financial opening-up and facilitate cross-border investment and financing to attract more foreign financial institutions and long-term capital.

In 2020, ERGO China and Beijing Foreign Enterprise Human Resources Service Co., Ltd. (FESCO) jointly established ERGO-FESCO, eyeing for insurance brokerage business.

ERGO-FESCO will provide comprehensive and innovative insurance solutions, such as health insurance, for enterprises and families to meet the diverse and multi-level insurance and service needs of enterprises and consumers, Schmitz said.

Based and starting from Beijing, ERGO-FESCO also plans to gradually open branches and expand its business to more regions.

Schmitz said China’s opening-up will bring about more opportunities to the market and accelerate high-quality development of the industry of insurance and other financial sectors.

The introduction of foreign financial institutions will bring good practices from mature markets to China while promoting healthy competition in the domestic financial industry, he said.

“We welcome the opening-up of the Chinese financial and insurance industry to foreign enterprises. It will bring more business opportunities to us, and we are glad to take the chance to contribute to the high-quality development of China’s insurance industry,” he added.  ■