Chinese regulators have intensified their crackdown on insurers’ use of high-risk, high-return products, which are often used to fund corporate deals.

中国监管机构加大了对保险公司利用高风险高回报产品的打击，这些产品往往被用于企业交易。

The clampdown comes days after the country’s securities regulator separately denounced companies making highly leveraged takeovers as “barbarians” and “robbers”.

最新打击措施出台几天前，中国证券监管机构还谴责发起高杠杆收购的公司是“野蛮人”和“强盗”。

The China Insurance Regulatory Commission on Tuesday said it had barred Foresea Life Insurance from issuing “universal insurance” products.

中国保险监督管理委员会(CIRC)周二表示，其已对前海人寿(Foresea Life Insurance)采取停止其开展“万能险”新业务的监管措施。

Foresea is a unit of privately held insurance conglomerate Baoneng, which has been locked in a hostile takeover of property developer China Vanke for a year and has used the proceeds from sales of such products to finance its pursuit.

前海人寿是私有保险集团宝能(Baoneng)旗下的公司。宝能投入对房地产开发商万科(China Vanke)的敌意收购已有一年，并利用了此类产品的销售所得为这项努力提供资金。

The CIRC also said it had halted online sales of universal insurance products by six major insurers, including Evergrande, which is competing with Baoneng to take over Vanke.

中国保监会还表示，已叫停6家大型保险公司的互联网渠道万能险产品销售，包括与宝能竞购万科的恒大人寿(Evergrande)。

Regulators have become increasingly wary as Chinese insurers have made a series of highly leveraged acquisitions in recent years. Such concerns were believed to be part of the reason Anbang Insurance withdrew its $14bn bid for Starwood Hotels & Resorts.

随着中国各保险公司近年来进行了一系列高杠杆收购，监管机构已变得越来越警惕。他们的担忧被认为是安邦保险(Anbang Insurance)取消对喜达屋酒店及度假村(Starwood Hotels & Resorts) 140亿美元收购的部分原因。

“If you use funds from questionable sources to undertake highly leveraged buyouts, and turn from an [industry] stranger to a barbarian, and finally become a robber, this is not acceptable,” said Liu Shiyu, head of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, in a weekend broadside.

中国证券监督管理委员会(CSRC)主席刘士余周末发出猛烈抨击，他说：“你用来路不当的钱从事杠杆收购，行为上从门口的陌生人变成野蛮人，最后变成行业的强盗，这是不可以的。”

Earlier this year, the chair of the CIRC warned against insurers, awash with cash from universal insurance premiums, becoming “automatic teller machines” for takeovers.

今年早些时候，中国保监会主席曾警告由于万能险保费收入而资金充裕的保险商，不要成为收购的“提款机”。

“Insurers use the premiums from universal insurance products to buy stocks, which they then use as collateral to buy more stocks, thus leveraging up and increasing their returns,” said Zhou Hao of Commerzbank. “It could create a vicious spiral if stock prices fall.”

“保险公司利用万能险产品的保费来买入股票，然后将这些股票用作抵押品，买入更多股票，从而提升杠杆，提高他们的回报，”德国商业银行(Commerzbank)的周昊表示，“如果股票价格下跌，就可能形成一个恶性循环。”

Universal insurance products combine an insurance component — a death benefit — with a high-return investment in a variety of assets including equities and shadow-banking loans. Foresea’s universal insurance products offered returns of between 4 and 8 per cent a year, making them attractive short-term investments for retail customers.

万能险产品由一个保险部分（身故保险金）与一个高回报投资部分（包括股票和影子银行贷款等各类资产）相结合组成。前海的万能险产品提供每年4%至8%的回报率，使它们成为对零售客户有吸引力的短期投资。

Analysts have expressed concerns about the financial risks inherent in this model, in which insurers rely on customers rolling over their short-term plans in order to stay solvent.

分析师们对这一模式固有的财务风险表示担忧，因为保险公司依赖客户滚转其短期计划以保持偿付能力。

“The aim of tightening regulation is to guide insurers back to making traditional conservative investments, as opposed to acting like aggressive asset managers," said Jonas Short, head of Beijing-based NSBO China, a policy research firm.

“收紧监管的目的是指导保险公司重拾传统的保守型投资，而不是像激进的资产管理公司那样操作，”投资银行蓝橡资本(NSBO)北京负责人乔纳斯.肖特(Jonas Short)表示。

The sale of universal insurance products surged this year, with as many sold in the first five months as in the whole of last year, according to data collected by FT Confidential Research. Premiums from these products made up over 80 per cent of the insurance industry’s total premium revenue in January through October, according to CIRC data collected by NSBO.

根据英国《金融时报》旗下研究服务部门“投资参考”(FT Confidential Research)收集的数据，今年万能险产品销售激增，前5个月就达到去年全年的销售量。根据NSBO收集的中国保监会数据，来自此类产品的保费收入占1至10月占保险业总保费收入的80%以上。

Foresea sold over Rmb70bn ($10bn) worth of universal insurance products in the year to October, making it the country’s fifth-largest seller of such plans.

今年截至10月，前海销售了超过700亿元人民币（合100亿美元）的万能险产品，成为此类产品的国内第五大卖家。