China's CIRC Issues Interim Administration Provisions On Asset Backed Plan

Asset backed plan ("Asset Backed Plan"), a comparatively new method to invest insurance funds in China, was first established by the China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC) in February 2013 by way of issuing the Notice of the CIRC on Matters of Pilot Operation of Asset Management Product Issued by Insurance Asset Management Companies ("2013 Notice").  After a two-year trial period, the CIRC issued the Interim Administration Provisions on Asset Backed Plan in September 2015 ("2015 Provisions"), which is viewed as a further step in improving this special purpose investment vehicle.

An Asset Backed Plan is one type of asset backed securities (ABS).  The overall ABS issued in China up until 2015 was around RMB 759 billion, most of which were issued by banks and securities companies and regulated by the CBRC and CSRC respectively.  Asset Backed Plans established by insurance asset management companies are of a smaller scale –there have been 22 Asset Backed Plans in