China Jan-Sept insurance premiums hit $116 bln

BEIJING Oct 23 (Reuters) - Chinese insurance premiums in the first nine months reached 794 billion yuan ($116 billion), up 49 percent from a year earlier, the country's insurance regulator said on Thursday.

Insurers' total assets reached 3.1 trillion yuan by the end of September, up from 3.04 trillion yuan by the end of August, the China Insurance Regulatory Commission said in a statement published on its website (www.circ.gov.cn).

It did not provide details.

Wu Dingfu, chairman of CIRC, warned Chinese insurers to step up their risk controls against the background of the global financial crisis, according to the statement.

"Though the measures we have taken to resolve the crisis are working now, we must appreciate that the future trend of the financial crisis is unpredictable, and our insurance industry can not loosen its grip by even the slightest degree," Wu said.

He said China's insurance sector was not immune to external shocks as many foreign insurers have operations in China and Chinese firms are also expanding abroad.

Ping An Insurance (601318.SS), China's second-largest life insurer, suffered a $2.3 billion loss from its investment in troubled European financial group Fortis FOR.AS.

The loss is one of the biggest suffered by a Chinese financial institution in the current global crisis. Ping An also scrapped a $3 billion deal to buy half of Fortis's asset management arm. ($1=6.836 Yuan) (Reporting by Eadie Chen, editing by Will Waterman)