New China Life Insurance Co. raised HK$14.7 billion (US$1.9bn) from its initial public offering (IPO) at the Shanghai and Hong Kong stock exchanges.

The Chinese insurer sold 358.42 million shares in Hong Kong, at HKD28.50 a piece. The price was very close to the bottom of an indicative range of HKD28.20 to HKD34.33.

It has been announced by the Canadian insurer, Manulife that it is going to double the headcount of its number of agents and financial advisers by 2014. This is part of the company's idea to expand itself in the Asian region.

OCBC Bank, owner of Singapore's largest life insurer, registered a lower profit in the very first quarter as trading as well as investment income dropped down while the expenses rose.

The profit came down by 7% down to S$628 million in the quarter ended 31st March this year from the S$676 million of the same period last year, as told by the bank to the stock exchange on Thursday.

That was more improved than the S$587.5 million aggregate estimate of 8 analysts made a survey of by Bloomberg.

The insurance firms are not commencing pension plans in the market after the insurance regulator IRDA has come up with rules regarding unit plus linked (Ulips). One of the major factors for this is the minimum guarantee that the regulator has attached with this plan.

Kentucky’s Insurance Commisioner has lately voiced an opinion that any 2-year-old who are denied its toy would feel envious since the health insurers have decided not to issue new “child-only” policies many days before parts of the new Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act become law on September 23.

The Association of British Insurers said on Thursday that it will study the text of a legal opinion on alleged gender discrimination in the pricing of insurance products. He warned the clients at the same time that women could now miss out on slightly cheaper rates if a person’s sex is excluded as a factor in calculating premiums.

The regulator of the insurance sector, Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) has urged insurance firms to offer consumer friendly products and simply their policy documents in order to attract more customers.

“The consumer should be the focus of the Indian insurance industry,” said IRDA Chairman, J. Hari Narayan in his address at the thirteenth insurance summit organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).