(Yicai Global) May 11 -- Hannover Re, the world’s third-largest reinsurance company, has secured approval from Chinese regulators to increase the registered capital of its wholly owned Shanghai unit for the second time in about nine months.

The China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission recently gave permission for the German reinsurer to boost the unit’s registered capital by about 60 percent to CNY4.1 billion (USD578 million) from CNY2.55 billion, the regulator said on its website today. The CBIRC allowed it to lift the amount from CNY1.55 billion last September.

China’s regulators have been accelerating the further opening-up of the nation’s reinsurance market. They gave the nod in December for Korean Reinsurance to set up shop in the country, raising the total number of foreign players to seven, outnumbering their domestic rivals. Capital increase proposals from German Gen Re’s Shanghai unit and Swiss Re’s Beijing unit were also approved in November and last April.

Hannover Re set up its only Chinese subsidiary in 2008. The unit reported a 46 percent surge in insurance business income to CNY13.9 billion last year. Formed in 1966, Hannover Re’s total income from premiums stood at EUR22 billion (USD23.8 billion) in 2019.

The CBIRC pointed out that China’s reinsurance market has been developing steadily and quickly in a highly open and competitive environment in recent years, so foreign firms are keen. They have boosted their investment to meet the market’s needs and their business development in China.

Editor: Peter Thomas