China Insurance Regulatory Commission, the country's insurance regulator, has allowed nine fund management and securities brokerage firms to manage investments for insurance companies.

In its website, the CIRC listed the nine companies: Bosera Asset Management, Dacheng Fund Management, HuaAn Fund Management, HFT Investment Management, Huatai-PineBridge Fund Management, Harvest Fund Management, Lion Fund Management, Haitong Securities and China International Capital.

The qualifiers are required to have at least RMB10 billion (US$1.6 billion) in outstanding assets under management to be allowed to handle investments on behalf of insurers.

The decision to bring in third parties come as the Chinese insurance industry struggles with low investment returns and asset depreciation. For instance, China Life Insurance, the country's largest life insurer, posted a 26 per cent decline in net profit for the first half of 2012 due to sluggish domestic markets.

CIRC made the announcement 26 September 2012.