Research on Corporate Governance of China Listed State-owned Life Insurance Company

Abstract

The theoretical research on the Corporate Governance of the public listed State-owned Life Insurance Company is a virgin field in present China. In recent years, along with the restructuring and reform of the state-owned life insurance companies and the successful IPO of China Life Insurance company in Hong Kong and U.S.A., how to improve the Corporate Governance became an important area of research in domestic life insurance industry and a prerequisite for the state owned public listed companies to establish modern corporate system and have a healthy development. Through comparative research and analysis on the international theories of corporate governance and the practice of China Life Co. Ltd. as case study, the thesis put forward detailed suggestions on how to improve the corporate governance of the state owned public listed life insurance companies and proposes the best code of practice "Code Outline on the Corporate Governance of the State-Owned Life Insurance Companies". As a conclusion, the thesis stresses the importance of sustainable development as an objective and ultimate goal for the state owned public listed life insurer and corporate governance. 9 chapters of the thesis analyse and defend the theme from 4 perspectives: analysis of the restructure and present situation of the state-owned life insurance companies, research on theories and key issues on corporate governance, current situation and problems of the state-owned public listed life insurance companies, comparative research on international and domestic corporate governance code related to life insurance industry, research on how to establish corporate governance code in state owned public listed life insurance company. The first and the second chapters discussed briefly the fast development and emerging problem of negative-spread of life insurance industry, especially china life within recent 10 years. The inefficient corporate governance of the State-owned Life Insurance companies lead to the fast expansion of the business whereas low solvency and decline of the profit, which is a good illustration of " Absurd Efficiency of State Owned Enterprise " Theory in life insurance industry. Restructuring and IPO is a good way to solve the historical problem and maintain future development of the company by establishing a public listed company with improved corporate governance. However, the Auditing problem and the consequent class action in U.S.A. on China Life Insurance Co. Ltd shows the inefficient corporate governance of the public listed companies split from state-owned enterprises which brought comprehensive public attention, which makes overseas market cast a doubt on the validity of corporate governance of China financial corporation. The case study of China Life shows that many aspects need to be improved for real valid and effective corporate governance. The third and forth chapters summarised and analysed the theories of corporate governance and relevant research on the corporate governance of the state owned enterprises in China. The Concept of Corporate Governance has been explained in different field on various occasions and up till now there is no recognised definition. The chapter first conducts a comparative analysis on "Principal-Agency Theory", "Stakeholder Theory", "Research on Corporate Governance in Transitional Economics", "Incentives Theory" etc. The thesis illustrates the unique characteristics of corporate governance under different legal and regulatory framework by analysing from the perspective of introduction of different models under different legal systems i.e. British-America Model, Japanese-Germany model and Eastern Asia Family corporate governance model. In practice, the adaptability and efficiency is the key issue of the corporate governance. The analysis of the recent domestic research and security industry practice on corporate governance on state owned company shows the existing problems of corporate governance in structure, mechanism and external environment. The essence of the domestic corporate governance problem lies in the insufficient internal motivation, it is difficult to meet the target by simply copying the model from the developed market. The fifth, sixth, seventh chapters did a case study on the current situation of the corporate governance of China Life Insurance Co. Ltd. - as a sample from 3 perspectives by comparative analysis on the rules of HK and U.S.A, including structure of corporate governance, the internal mechanism of corporate governance and the external environment. The analysis on the structure of corporate governance emphasises on the function of Board of Directors, Supervisory Board and the system of Independent Director. Board of Directors is the core element. However the board fails to play sufficient role under the present corporate governance structure due to the limited role of the board directors and the inefficient nomination and assessment system for board directors, which ultimately affects fulfilment of the corporate governance goal. In addition, the thesis also analyses the problem of insider control resulted from the absence of owners which is another thorny issue for the State-Owed Enterprise Reform. The chapter also gave a thorough analysis on the authorisation and custody of the state-owned financial assets and proposes that the agent of the state owned assets should be an active investor instead of a solely custodian which is essential to solve the corporate governance problem of the state owed financial institutions. The thesis analyses the mechanism of corporate governance from the perspective of the internal control system, information disclosure system and the senior management incentives system and concludes by comparative research on the external environment i.e. mature capital market and talent market which play the same important role. The last chapter is divided into 2 sections. The chapter first did a comparative analysis on the corporate governance code of HK and China Insurance Regulatory Commission, followed by the analysis on corporate governance code of Met-Life and AIG as samples of international public listed life insurance companies. Different institution has varied requirements for corporate governance because of different standpoint. Laws and regulations are compulsory whereas the code of best practice put forward by some international organisation is always in the form of suggestion. Code of corporate governance disclosed to the public is a commitment made by the company to protect shareholders' right, increase the corporate transparency and realise the development of the corporation. Based on the previous chapters' discussion, the 9th chapter proposes how to improve and perfect the corporate governance of the public listed state -owned life insurance companies under the current circumstances, which also includes special analysis and suggestions based on the life insurance industry. The thesis put forward "Outline of the Code of Practice for the Corporate Governance of the State Owned Public Listed Life Insurance Companies" for the future development of the companies and raised the requirements of best practice for main aspects of the corporate governance. The chapter concludes by proposing the sustainable development of the public listed life insurance companies on the basis of analysis on the recent international trend of development on the corporate governance. The sustainable development of corporation becomes an international trend, which requires the company to undertake social responsibility along with the business development. The operation of the public listed state- owned life insurance company should also abide by the same rule. The chapter brought forth some innovative ideas on the theoretical and practical analysis on the corporate governance of the life insurance industry and aims to provide theoretical basis and valuable suggestion in this regard for the public listed state-owned life insurance companies and reform of the state-owned financial institutions.

Alternate abstract:

国有上市寿险公司治理研究是目前中国寿险理论研究的一个较为薄弱的领域。迄今为止，尚未有专门的论著就这一领域进行深入的分析与研究。近年来，随着国有寿险公司的重组、改制，特别是在国有寿险公司的代表中国人寿保险股份有限公司成功实现香港、美国上市之后，如何完善公司治理已成为国内寿险业重要的研究领域，它也成为国有上市寿险公司真正建立起现代企业制度、实现健康发展的重要前提，因此对此问题的研究具有十分重要的理论与实践意义。 本文通过对公司治理理论进行比较研究，以国有上市寿险公司的代表——中国人寿保险股份有限公司作为研究对象进行实证比较分析，并在比较研究国际、国内与寿险业相关的公司治理有关法律、法规，以及最佳实践准则的基础上，就如何完善国有上市寿险公司治理提出详细的建议，最后提出国有上市寿险公司的最佳实践要求——“国有上市寿险公司治理准则纲要”，以此作为中国国有上市寿险企业完善公司治理的最新要求。在本论文的最后，提出了以实现企业的可持续发展作为国有上市寿险公司未来发展的目标，这也是完善公司治理的最终目的。本论文共分9个章节，分别从国有寿险公司重组上市，公司治理理论及重点问题的研究，国有上市寿险公司治理的现状与问题，国际、国内与寿险业有关的公司治理准则比较，关于建立国有上市寿险企业公司治理准则的研究4个大的方面进行了论述。 在本论文的第一章与第二章中，就10余年来寿险业快速发展但寿险行业，特别是国有寿险公司出现的利差损问题进行了的论述。国有寿险公司在业务快速发展的同时，却出现偿付能力不足、效益下滑的现象，问题的实质是国有公司中存在所有者缺位、缺乏现代企业所必需的公司治理结构，这正是“国有企业效益悖论”在寿险业的例证。此后在政府与监管部门的支持下，国有寿险公司完成了重组并成功实现了海外上市，其目的是通过重组、上市建立起符合现代企业制度所要求的公司治理结构，在解决历史遗留问题的同时保证了企业的未来发展。由于脱胎于国有独资企业的股份制公司尚未完全达到公司治理的有效性要求，在中国人寿股份公司上市后遇到的审计风波以及随后出现的美国集团诉讼事件，使得公司治理这一问题成为舆论关注的焦点,并引发海外资本市场对国有金融企业公司治理有效性的质疑。从对中国人寿的实证分析中可以看出，建立形式上的公司治理结构并不难，但要真正达到公司治理的制衡目的，发挥其效用，则还需要在多方面进行改进与完善。 通过第三章、第四章，本论文就公司治理理论以及中国国有企业公司治理的相关研究进行了概述与分析。到目前为止，国际上尚未就公司治理一词做出统一的定义，有关这方面的研究散见于不同的领域。本论文就“委托——代理关系研究”，“利益相关者理论”，“转轨经济中的公司治理研究”，“激励理论”等方面进行了概述与分析，此后对不同的法律体系下的不同模式如英美模式、日德模式、东亚家族治理模式进行了介绍，以说明公司治理在不同的法律、法规环境中所体现出的不同特性。实际上，公司治理的模式不存在孰优孰劣，适用性及其效率才是关键。在中国国有企业公司治理相关研究的分析中，就国内近年理论界以及证券业在公司治理方面所做的研究与实践进行了分析。透过这些分析可以看到，无论是公司治理结构，还是公司治理机制，以及公司治理外部环境都存在着很多的问题。目前国内存在的问题在于企业完善公司治理的内在动力不足，仅仅是引入成熟市场的模式难以实现公司治理的目标。 本论文在第五章、第六章、第七章，对国有上市寿险企业——中国人寿保险股份有限公司的公司治理现状进行了实证分析。实证分析从三个方面：公司治理结构、公司治理内部机制、公司治理外部环境，同时结合香港与美国的相关规定进行了比较。在对公司治理结构的分析中，重点就董事会的作用、监事会的作用、独立董事制度等方面进行了剖析。董事会是公司治理结构中的核心，但由于目前董事的作用有限、董事的提名与工作评价都缺乏相应的制度安排，因此董事会未能在公司治理结构中充分发挥作用，这直接影响了公司治理目标的实现。此外，由于所有者缺位所引发的内部人控制问题也是目前国有企业改革中的一个难点，就此问题本论文也进行了相关分析。本部分还对国有金融资产的授权代理问题进行了较为深入的分析，并提出只有在国有金融资产的代理能够成为积极的投资人角色，而不仅仅是看护人的角色的情况下，才能解决目前国有金融企业中所有者缺位这一核心问题。在公司治理内部机制的分析中，本论文就内控制度、信息披露机制、高管激励机制等方面进行了分析。最后，对于公司治理发挥效用所必须的成熟资本市场、人才市场等外部环境也作了比较研究。 最后一部分包括两章。本论文首先对香港与中国保险监管部门公司治理准则进行了比较，然后以两家国际知名的上市寿险公司METLIFE、AIG的公司治理准则作为范例进行了比较。公司治理准则在不同的层面上通常有不同的要求，这是由于不同的机构是基于不同的角度所提出的。法律、法规要求通常是一种强制性要求，而一些国际组织提出的公司治理准则与最佳实践往往是作为一种建议，而公司对外披露的公司治理准则是企业做出的保护股东利益、增加经营透明度、实现企业发展的一种承诺。本论文通过前面的论述，在第九章中提出了如何在现阶段对国有上市寿险公司治理进行完善, 这部分中也包括了针对寿险业特点所做出的分析与建议。针对国有上市寿险公司的未来发展，本论文提出“国有上市寿险公司治理准则纲要”，在公司治理的主要方面提出了最佳实践要求。通过对国际公司治理最新发展的分析，提出了实现国有上市寿险公司的可持续发展的观点，并将此作为完善公司治理的最终目的。企业的可持续发展已成为一种国际潮流，它要求企业在发展的同时承担相应的社会责任。国有上市寿险公司的经营也应该以此为目标，在实现经济效益的同时，兼顾不同利益相关者，承担社会责任。在此部分，本论文在寿险业公司治理的理论与实证分析研究方面提出了一些创新观点，力求通过分析与研究，为国有上市寿险公司以及国有金融机构的改革提供有价值的理论依据与实践参考。