Insurers should not be securities speculators: CIRC head

The head of China's insurance regulator said Tuesday that insurers should not be securities speculators amid market concerns driven by some companies' large stake acquisitions using borrowed money.

"Insurance companies should be financial investors in good faith, instead of making hostile takeovers," Xiang Junbo, chairman of the China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC), said during a meeting, vowing stricter supervision over the sector.

Insurance should provide long-term capital for the real economy and defend against financial risks, he added.

The remarks came as a hard-line response to recent "barbaric" behavior of some insurers using leveraged money to buy shares of listed companies.

Triggering sharp volatility in the market, the moves annoyed corporate executives and caused individual investors to suffer.

The CIRC has strengthened its monitoring efforts, including suspending Evergrande Life, the insurance arm of China Evergrande Group, from investing in the stock market. Endi