China invests $240b insurance capital overseas

China invested $239.55 billion insurance capital in overseas market by the end of 2014, accounting for 1.44 percent of the total assets of the insurance industry, said Zhou Yanli, vice chairman of China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC) on Friday.

About 20 percent of the overseas investment was for real estate projects, he said.

The largest part of overseas investment was in terms of equity investment, especially in the Hong Kong market, according to the official.

"The CIRC will closely watch potential risks in the global financial market and give warnings to insurance institutions to prevent large loses," said Zhou.

The CIRC has expanded investment scale for insurance capital and reduced some investment threshold for institutions in 2014.