The CBIRC will endeavour to speed up the implementation of a new regulation relating to the management of insurance funds' equity investments, according to Mr Zhou Liang, a CBIRC vice chairman.

In an interview earlier this week with Securities Times, he said that the CBIRC would discuss the proposed regulation with other ministries in order to finalise it. An exposure draft of the proposed regulation was issued towards the end of last year.

Mr Zhou explained that the financial regulatory authorities generally encourage and support insurance funds investing in the capital market because of the long-term nature of their funds.

The Chinese government has been encouraging insurance funds to invest in listed equities, to support the stock market which slumped last year because of the country's economic slowdown and the trade war with the US.

Mr Zhou stressed though that the insurance industry, in deciding which sector to invest in and how much to invest, has to consider the sector's structure and situation.

He said that the financial services industry has grown rapidly in the past two years, but the problem remains that while large in scale, the industry is not strong.

To achieve high-quality development in the financial services industry, the institutions in it must to serve the real economy, he said. There is also a need to strengthen supply-side structural reform of the industry. This aspect depends measures such as the results of de-leveraging reform and consolidating continual innovation.