Ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon. Welcome to CPIC 2023 first half interim results announcement. I'm Su Shaojun, CPIC Board Secretary. I'm pleased to communicate with all the investors, analysts, and friends from the media to report our interim reports and to hear your thoughts. This meeting will be held both online and offline. Throughout the meeting, we have simultaneous interpretation service. After the meeting, you may watch the replay of this conference by the link we put on our company's website. Now, I would like to introduce to you the senior management of CPIC. Mr. Fu Fan, Group President. Mr. Ma Xin, Group Vice President. Mr. Zhang Yuanhan, Group Chief Financial Officer and Chief Actuary. Mr. Cai Qiang, General Manager and CEO of CPIC Life. Mr. Zeng Yi, General Manager of CPIC P&C. Mr. Yu Rongquan, General Manager of CPIC AMC.
Independent directors will also join the conference online. Some of our senior executives will also be sitting in on the conference, both online and offline. Mr. Fu Fan, Group President, will first introduce the interim results, then we will have a Q&A session. The floor is yours, Mr. Fu Fan.
Good afternoon, investors, analysts, and friends from the media. Welcome to our 2023 interim results announcement. I'm happy to talk to you both face-to-face and online. In the first half of 2023, China's economy gradually recovered and demonstrated resilience. However, the process advances amid difficulties and takes time for full recovery and restructuring. Although favorable national initiatives and government policies, improving consumer demand for insurance and reform of China's financial regulatory system all present opportunities for insurers' long-term development, but also call for further improvement in insurers' corporate governance and business management.
CPIC stayed focused on core business of insurance, remained committed to value growth and long-termism. We achieved encouraging overall business results and enhanced comprehensive strengths. CPIC Life deepened the Changhng Transformation and achieved balanced business development and steady value growth. CPIC P&C pursued precise business management with sustained improvement of business quality and mix. Asset management further improved sustainable AUM system and reported solid investment results. In the meantime, we constantly optimized customer-oriented business operation, implementing strategies in healthcare and elderly care management, business development in key regions and technology empowerment, achieving notable breakthroughs in value creation and capability building. In terms of business metrics, group insurance revenue amounted to CNY 134.1 billion, a year-on-year growth of 7.4%. Group OPAT, attributable to shareholders of the parent, are CNY 21.5 billion, up by 2.5%.
Group net profits fell by 8.7% to RMB 18.3 billion yuan. Group EV are RMB 537.1 billion, a growth of 3.4%. Group number of customers stayed stable at 171 million, and Group AUM are RMB 2.84 trillion, an increase of 6.9% from the end of 2022. From the beginning of this year, we started to implement new insurance standards and new standards on financial instruments. Certain metrics will be very much different under the new accounting standards. For example, insurance revenue is different from gross written premiums under the old standards, in both its definition and actual numbers. The net profits are affected more, so it would not be necessary to do a comparison in comparative periods.
We also retrospectively adjusted numbers relating to insurance business for the same period of the preceding year, according to the new insurance standards. We chose not to retrospectively adjust numbers relating to investment business for the same period of the preceding year, according to the new standards on financial instruments. Net profits rose by 50.9% after restatement of numbers for the same period of 2022. The company maintained solid capital positions, with group comprehensive and core solvency margin ratios on a 2023 of 240% and 159% respectively. With diminishing impact of the transition period, solvency margin ratios of Group CPIC Life and P&C all dropped, but they still maintain sufficient levels and comply towards regulatory requirements. OPAT is a metric more compatible with the long-term nature of our business.
In the first half this year, excluding short-term investment movements and material one-off factors, Group OPAT, attributable to shareholders of the parent, amount to RMB 21.5 billion, a year-on-year growth of 2.5%. OPAT of Life are RMB 16.7 billion, up by 2.4%. Group EV maintained steady growth, growing by 3.4%. In terms of EV composition, Group adjusted net worth amounted to RMB 312.4 billion, up by 4.8% from the end of 2022. Group value of in-force business amounted to RMB 224.8 billion, up by 1.5, 1.5% from the end of 2022. In terms of drivers of EV movement, positive contributions mainly come from expected return on EV and MPV.
Meanwhile, EV movement was also affected by profit distribution and investment return variance. We persisted in customer orientation with the debut of 3-5-2 healthcare roadmap, which focused on insurance payment, service empowerment, and ecosystem building to improve the insurance protection plus health management service system. In insurance payment, we focused on protection coverage and claims payment, upgraded product and service system underpinned by high-quality healthcare big data to ensure or rather enhance insurance payment. In service empowerment, we provided integrated insurance plus health plus retirement solution in response to diverse customers' needs. Service programs such as CPIC Home, digital medicine under CPIC Family Doctor, building of hospitals under CPIC RehabCare, health promotion of youth and teenagers under CPIC Juvenile Health Promotion, and primary care under Guangci Memorial Hospital, all helped to empower the core business and cultivate our core competitiveness.
On ecosystem building, we built healthcare ecosystems via the healthcare industrial equity fund and CPIC Blue Charitable Foundation. We adopted a differentiated approach towards the strategy of regional integrated development and promoted innovation in insurance supply to boost development. Focusing on the Greater Bay Area and our reach extended to Hong Kong and Macau, we pushed for innovation in products and services to boost our visibility and competitiveness, like multi-insurance service connector between Macau and Mainland and Macau, or let's say rather Macau and Mainland, and Hong Kong and Mainland, with supportive customer service in play. Hong Kong residents also have access to CPIC Home and CPIC Family Doctor. At the same time, we launched insurance against losses from carbon emissions reduction, green buildings malfunction, and income loss of PV power generation to promote green insurance development.
New business model for NEV has been up and running on a trial basis in the Greater Bay Area, contributing to the rollout of a vertical business management system and integrated sales and service. In the circle of Chengdu and Chongqing, we leveraged our R&D center and data center in Chengdu, built the technology innovation center, and explored scenario-based application of frontier technology. We also entered into a strategic partnership with West China Hospital to explore personalized integrated solutions, including inclusive health insurance integration, social and commercial insurance, and insurance for substandard risks, as well as for key customer segments of the elderly and the children. In terms of big data strategy, we accelerated digitalization via big data and diversified scenario-based application to empower core insurance business.
On customer resource management, we developed a digital integrated solutions for individual customers, which enabled dynamic matching of targeted customer insights and business strategies. On smart claims management, we independently developed a control platform for unmanned aerial vehicles. The platform can also generate executive aerial photography according to profiles of the land under coverage, with accurate results of loss adjustment returned real-time. On smart operation, we continue to roll out RPA application with the establishment of professional, intelligent, smart factories, with no man on duty, and replaced a monthly average of 400 workers. On digital employees, we launched a digital employee for internal auditing quality control based on large-scale AI modeling, which can take on and accomplish IA internal auditing tasks through natural language dialogues.
On asset management risk control, we realized all-around automation of traditional manual work via multiple AI technologies, such as collection of information on adverse media publicity, financial analysis, promoting a shift to business model of asset management from passive defense to proactive services. Now it's about core business segments. On Life, during the reporting period, CPIC Life deepened Changhang Transformation and achieved balanced business development and steady value growth. It reported steady growth of total premium income with robust MPV performance. Renewed premium amounted to RMB 169.6 billion, up by 2.5%. Of this, FYP grew by 4.1%, and renewed premiums up by 1.9% on a year-on-year basis. MPV reached RMB 7.361 billion, a year-on-year growth of 31.5%.
MPV margin stood at 13.4%, up by 2.7 percentage points. CSM amounted to RMB 329 billion, up by 0.8%. We pressed ahead with the restructuring of the agency force. On career-based development, we fully leveraged the amended basic law to drive changes in behaviors of agents, normalized the standardized procedures of the new agent selection and retention system. There is a normalized mode for recruitment and coaching. We also upgraded the owner system for high-performing agents, with MDRT headcount reaching a new high. To improve professionalism, CPIC developed integrated solutions based on customer needs, deepening integration of products and services, and promoted the sales proposition of all-around protection for the whole family by product combinations, built the Xin Xun Ying training camp, a new training camp.
As for digitization, we built an integrated digital platform for agents to strengthen process control centering on agent activity management. In the first half, core manpower started to stabilize, with monthly average FYP per core agent of RMB 55.5 thousand, up by 35.1%. A monthly average FYC per core agent is RMB 7,482, up by 61.8%. Bank insurance focused on value growth, deepened partnerships with banking outlets, strengthened basic management with considerable improvement in value contribution. So bank insurance realized RMB 22.1 billion in return premiums, up by 7.7% year-on-year basis, and of these, regular paid new business premiums amounted to RMB 6.574 billion, growth of 460%.
MBV from this channel also grew by 305% on a year-on-year basis to RMB 1.381 billion, with share of total MBV rising by 12.7 percentage points to 18.8%. This channel is becoming increasingly important for CPIC Life. The property casualty business seized opportunities of economic recovery and industry upgrading, focused on key national initiatives, and pursued sustainable, high-quality development. The premium growth is rapid, and the underwriting profitability is quite sound. In the first half, recorded primary premium income are RMB 103.7 billion, up by 14.3% from the same period of last year.
Of these, premiums from auto insurance were CNY 50.8 billion, up by 5.4%, and that from non-auto business were CNY 52.9 billion, up by 24.5% on a Y-O-Y basis. Under the new accounting standards, underwriting combined ratio was 97.9%, up by 0.6 percentage point on a year-on-year basis. Of this, underwriting loss ratio stood at 70.4%, up by 0.9 percentage point as a result of higher claims frequency of automobile insurance. As travel returned to normal, underwriting expense ratio was 27.5%, down by 0.3 percentage point. While ensuring stable business fundamentals, automobile insurance business continued to enhance targeted management and maintained decent underwriting profitability.
Underwriting combined ratio for auto business was 98%, up by 1.4 percentage points from the low base of the same period last year. Underwriting loss ratio stood at 70.8%, up by 0.8 percentage point, and underwriting expense ratio is 27.2%, up by 0.6 percentage point on a Y-O-Y basis. We also seized opportunities of new energy vehicles, with a share of NEV premiums reaching 10.2%, rising by 3.6 percentage on a year-on-year basis. As for non-auto part, we closely followed national initiatives and government policies, accelerated innovation. Non-auto insurance posted an underwriting combined ratio of 97.9%, down by 0.5 percentage point from the first half of this last year.
For health insurance, we further tapped into niche market businesses such as chronic illness insurance, long-term care, and Huimin Bao, and step up the development of mid and high-end commercial health insurance. We reported CNY 13.3 billion in primary premium income, a growth of 26.3% on a year-over-year basis. As to liability insurance, we also provided professional, diversified, and customized insurance products. So the primary revenue were CNY 11.1 billion, up by 35.1%. Commercial property insurance persisted in high-quality development. The primary premium income were CNY 3.7 billion, up by 4% on a year-over-year basis. And as to agriculture insurance, we provided innovative businesses. The primary premium insurance business were CNY 12.4 billion, up by 33.9% on a year-over-year basis. On asset management, we maintained steady growth.
The group AUM totaled RMB 2.84 trillion, rising 6.9%, and group in-house investment assets are RMB 2.12 trillion, a growth of 8.3%, and third-party AUM are RMB 718.3 billion, an increase of 2.9%. We persisted in the dumbbell-shaped asset allocation strategy, continuously increasing allocation into long-term T-bills to extend duration of fixed income assets, while moderately increasing investments in equity assets and alternative assets. In the same time, we continued to lower the share of corporate debt investments to control credit risk.... Strategic asset allocation continued to improve. As of the end of the reporting period, the share of debt financial assets was 72.5%, an increase of 3.4 percentage points from the beginning of 2023.
Share of equity financial assets stood at 14.5%, down by 0.3 percentage points from the beginning of this year. Of these, stocks and equity funds accounted for 11.1% of total, down by 0.4%. We conducted TAA, tactical asset allocation under the guidance of SAA, proactively coped with market volatility with solid investment performance. For the reporting period, net investment income totaled CNY 38.432 billion, up by 2.7% on a year-on-year basis. This stemmed mainly from increased dividend income. Net investment yield reached 2.0%, down by 0.1%. The total investment income amounted to CNY 3...
Let's say, CNY 38.249 billion, up by 4.1%, mainly attributable to gains from fair value movement, with total investment yield at 2%, down by 0.1%. Comprehensive investment yield rose by 0.6 percentage points to 2.1%, largely due to change in fair value of equity financial assets at fair value through OCI. We safely store by credit risk management, proactively managed and mitigated the risk, with credit risk overall under control. 99.3% of enterprise bonds and financial bonds issued by non-government-sponsored banks had an issuer or a debt rating of double-A or above. Of this, the share of triple-A reached 95.2%. There is a lot of attention surrounding non-public financing instruments.
For NPFIs with external credit ratings, the share of AAA+ and above accounts for 99.6%, and of this, the share of AAA is 97.4%, except for those issuers with high credit ratings and therefore exempt from credit-enhancing measures, other projects are all secured with guarantee or pledge of collateral. The underlying projects of our non-public financing instruments spread across sectors like infrastructure, communication, et cetera. The nominal yield is 4.7%, an average duration of 7.6 years. Since the beginning of this year, China's economy gradually recovers, with orderly advancement of restructuring and improving insurance consumption confidence, which paves the way for industry's quality development and growth in the future. Financial regulators attach greater importance to industry's value proposition in risk protection and contribution to China's development.
We are confident that we can facilitate the country's social and economic transition by accelerating supply-side reform and meeting customers' diverse needs in healthcare, elderly care management, and wealth management, and achieve high quality development of the company in the process. Going forward, under the guidance of the new development philosophy, we will accelerate capacity building compatible with the new development pattern, persist in value creation, adhere to customer-oriented business philosophy, stay focused on the long term, step up technology empowerment to boost the drivers of development, promote collaboration and synergy to unlock potential of development and forestall major risks to secure achievements of development. We will stay confident and patient, move forward in response to trends of our times and with our customers, and work even harder to achieve our vision of an industry leadership in the high quality development. That concludes my presentation. Thank you.
Thank you, President Fu, for the detailed introduction. We'll be in the Q&A session. Face-to-face participants may raise questions first. Please identify yourself before raising questions. You may raise two questions at the most. Thank you.
Thank you, President Fu. Sun Ting, analyst from Haitong Securities. To begin with, I would like to congratulate you for the outstanding results. Good performance on life, P&C, and investments. I have two questions. First question is related to what you just presented. The last page is about outlook, so I want to be more specific. So, market and industry development trends, what will be the company's view? The industry is undergoing transformation. How will the company respond to the transformation for long-term and high-quality development? The second question is for Mr. Cai. In the first half, CPIC Life's NBV, as well as per capita productivity, had high growth. This growth is even outperforming peers. So Mr. Cai, for such a high growth, what would be the enablers?
In addition, in the second half and in next year, can the company or whether the company can maintain or how to maintain such a high growth momentum? Thank you.
Thank you, Madam Sun.
... In the past few years, the environment, the insurance industry, have underwent big changes. There are several changes. One, overseas market has high inflation and interest rate. Besides, the Federal Reserve's rate hike movement is still uncertain. For the global asset pricing and funds outflow, these impose big uncertainties. For the long-term operation of insurance companies, especially for our investments, there might be strong spillover effects. Second, on the supply side, the dividend on population is diminishing. With generational change, consumers change their habits. Besides, energy structure and industry mix are changing. So for personal life and P&C life, for the sales model, and product design, and service offering, these pose new challenges. Third, residents still have wealth retention needs, and, the wealth management product mix transformation is underway.
The aging issue and the less children issue pull up the consumption needs in the insurance market, bringing out new market opportunities for financial institutions, especially insurance companies. Last but not the least, with that, the long-term interest rate decline and the implemented new accounting standards bring new challenges for match of assets and liabilities management for insurance companies. I think as insurance company, we need to respect the patterns in the industry. We go back to the original purpose of insurance company. So we need to focus on value creation, customer needs orientation, long-termism, technology empowerment, synergy, and the bottom line awareness. So for life, in terms of measures, I think we need to continue the Changhang Transformation and build a diversified channel with agent... Sales agent channel, that is called.
From the illustration material, we may have seen that, for the bank insurance strategy, we started on the end, beginning of last year. That supports a written premium for life. And for individual business, we will orderly drive the premium and marketing, and we'll build a diversified product and service system for customers. As to P&C, we need to continue to adhere to high-quality development. For auto business, we need to improve market-based pricing capability and fine management. For non-auto business, we need to grasp the opportunities from national strategy initiatives, such as rural revitalization. And further to that, we need to continue to stick to value investing, long-term investing, sound investing, and responsible investment. Continue to improve the value contribution on the assets side.
At the group level, we will continue to utilize our integrated operation advantage, tap into strategy on healthcare business, big data, and integrated regional development. As a company, is to enhance the corporate governance, optimize management mechanism, improve process, and realize sustainable value creation.
Thank you for your question. I will answer your second question about the robust growth of new business value. Indeed, we outperform our peers. Starting from last year, January, we implemented Changhang Transformation, and 18 months have passed. Following the roadmap, we implemented the project one by one, and we had eight projects. So we have eight projects, and for four quarters consecutively, we maintain NBV growth. So initial results have already been seen. There are five enablers. Four are within our expectation, and the other is beyond our expectation.
First, the new amended law greatly improved the initiative of our sales team, greatly improving productivity. The agents' monthly average first-year written premium is up by 35%. And first-year commission is up by 61.2%. That is the first enabler. Second is our one-on-one sales. In the past, we had group sales similar. Now we have one-on-one sales. On product mix, in Q1, we improved the proportion of critical illness products and health protection products. And besides, we have more products of long-term saving. So, the value-based profits to individual business from these two actions are up by 2.8%. Third enabler is the 13-month retention rate. So this rate starts to improve significantly, and newcomers productivity increase by multitudes. So this first half, we recruit less, yet the contribution improves significantly.
Fourth enabler is a value-based bank insurance strategy delivers significant result, and especially on strategic partner outlets, improvement on productivity and team building. We had sustainable development. The proportion of products with regular payments is up greatly. These all match the goals we set in our strategy. So the first half, bank insurance channel contributed 18.8% to MBV, becoming an important pillar. The fifth enabler is beyond our expectation. That is about the product switch. So we had a search on the short-term demands. Your second question is about sustainability. The core of Changhang Transformation is to change the model from a short-term driven one to a regular operation driven one. In the past, we had red door period once a year, and now every morning is a red door period.
So in this second half, we will continue the regular operation, regular sales, and regular recruitment, and have a stable model where policies are continuously issued and sales are continuously delivered. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Hu and Mr. Tang, for your questions and answers.
Thank you. Liu Xinqi, analyst from Guotai Junan Securities. Congratulations to the management for such outstanding results. I have two questions. The first question is for Mr. Ma. In the first half, life and EV growth is good, yet the traditional health insurance business faces headwinds. I notice that the layout of CPIC's healthcare business outperforms the peers. So Mr. Ma, will there be new business models in this area to empower the group's health insurance business development? Second question goes to Mr. Tang.
In the first half, CPIC's bank insurance growth is quite good, up by 305% on a year-on-year basis. We also know that regulators have tighter policies on bank insurance charges. There are some new policies. So what will be the impact on bank insurance channel, and this new regulatory environment, what will be the responding measures by CPIC Life? Thank you for your question. You mentioned that in the first half, health insurance performance faces headwinds from data perspective. But we look at from another angle, we see that holistically, health insurance business performance is sluggish. And in the world, a well-recognized fact is that medical insurance development is in a rapid cycle. In the first half, our medical insurance business growth is a double-digit growth, so the main negative impact comes from some new business.
So the rapid growth on medical insurance might not change in the medium and long term. As for the healthcare business, the most important thing in the first half is we release the roadmap. We invited many of you at the time of release of the roadmap, and Mr. Fu also presented to you relevant details on slide 10. The first layer of this roadmap is insurance payment. Chinese people still pay more out of their own pocket for medical expenditures. Comparing to the expenditures in moderately developed countries, Chinese people shoulder a higher burden, probably 2-3 folds. That is where the commercial health business may develop. Surely, this segment may lead to a reasonable growth. We focus on three core elements: underwriting, claims, and data, to innovate and develop our health products.
Of course, we want to improve our underwriting profitability for health insurance. Our whole industry still has a long way to go in this regard. The second layer is service empowerment, about building the health medical scenarios customers need. This is what we have been doing for the recent two years. For the online part, we have family doctor to improve accessibility of internet medical service. For the offline part, we invested in premium medical services, like United Family Hospitals. We also partner with some famous hospitals. For the elderly and the children, we also offer retirement services and juvenile health promotion service. The third layer is about ecosystem building, relating to two funds. Our equity funds is used for driving the innovation of medical care and healthcare industry's development. And CPIC Blue Charitable Funds focus on cognitive empowerment of the old and the young.
So these are the three layers for the roadmap. Indeed, this year, we did a lot. In the first half, our Juvenile Health Promotion Center, Shanghai Experience Flagship Store, was unveiled, and the service brand is called Juvenile Health Promotion. We also cooperate with famous hospital, for example, with West China Hospital, we are creating a center. And we also cooperate with School of Medicine under Shanghai Jiao Tong University for Yuanshen Rehab Research Institute. We are working on the national rollout on rehab care. Our family doctor offer e-health files serving more people. Within 6 months, we have served five million people with Family Doctor. We also have a brand called Lanyi Bao. This brand is gaining traction, becoming a first-choice medical insurance product among the young. Within seven months, this product brings about 1 million young customers, with average age of 26 years old.
We opened several retirement communities in Yunnan, Chengdu, and Hangzhou. We have five more to open in the second half. As to the priorities in the next stage on healthcare. First, we want to have effective connection between service and business development. China's insurance business development is no longer the same. In the past, the focus was on the simple insurance product sales, but now the focus is on experience-based marketing relating to scenarios. Second, use our data advantage to support service. We have been in the main insurance business for years. We have a lot of customers. Integration of insurance products and financial services can help customers have a better sense of accessibility, and also help each customer we serve to optimize their cost management and service projects. Third, we will consider how to make breakthrough on each project.
Some projects were established in Shanghai, for example, the Juvenile Health Promotion and Yuanshen Rehab Care. Moving forward, we will roll out these projects nationwide. Do we want to build a forest from these trees? In the industry, the commercial insurance reimbursement ratio is still low. The supply of healthcare service is not adequate, and the integration of products and services is not profound. These represent opportunities for our company... Over the past three years, we did a lot in this area, and we are firm about its bright future. We will continue to focus on the roadmap, and we believe more results will be seen. Thank you. I will answer the second question. On bank insurance development. In the first half, in bank insurance channel, NBV grew by 3x. Written premium of regular products grew by 4.66x.
The more important thing is that channels value margin is increased from 1.8% to 6.9%, up by 3.8 points. That shows that our strategy is correct, i.e., building a diversified channel. From the perspective of contribution by bank insurance, and they say China's bank insurance is in its stage 2.0. That is to say, banks cooperate with insurance companies and entering into a win-win process. That is to say, customers win, banks win, and insurance companies win. In this way, there will be a sustainable development for all three parties. So we're happy to have such a good performance. Regulatory changes and adjustments, I think there are two aspects. One is the interest rate switch from 3.5% to 3%. We are quite supportive to that.
The regulators consider the industry's development and the risk on interest rate loss. They also consider a downward interest rate movement. This represents a resolute industry adjustment. This is good for the whole industry and insurance companies. This is also good for the long-term partners of banks. So following this guiding direction from regulators, we'll work with the industry association to drive the product switch. Second is about using filed terms and interest rates at sales. This is a special requirement from regulators on bank insurance. This is about regulated surcharges. There will be no vicious competition. So insurance companies do not focus on surcharges marketing. They focus more on product and services and capabilities. This is good for the industry. We will resolutely follow regulators' direction to implement the spirits of the policy. Thank you. Thank you for the opportunity. I'm Mao Qingqi ng, analyst from CICC.
My first question is related to P&C. We know that NEV business ratio is higher, so could the management share with us the performance on NEVs? What is your view on profitability prospects on the auto business on NEV and potential competitions from the car companies as to non-auto? We know that, non-auto business see increase on premium and underwriting profitability is improved. Could the management let us know what are the enablers, which are short-term enablers and which are long-term enablers? I have a question with Life, if possible. So the question is for Mr. Cai. Mr. Ma has mentioned that in the first half, the long-term critical illness faces headwinds. I would like to ask a question. Previously, the company mentioned that the agents will be encouraged to sell critical illness in the second half. Mr. Cai, what is your view on its future development?
Critical illness was once a core product for the industry. Do you still have confidence on the business? What actions on the level of teams and products will help us to make icebreaking performance? Thank you for your question. Over the past several years, P&C follows the requirement on high-quality development. I think we've followed three patterns. One is pattern on China's economy. Second is pattern on insurance industry, and third is pattern is about our P&C's history development. After benchmarking, the best performing result, the first half market share for us is up by 2.5 percentage points. Our combined ratio is 0.6 percentage points lower than the industry performance. Thank you for your support and care. You mentioned two questions. So to begin with, I will address the non-auto business development question, then I will talk about any big question.
For non-auto business, I mentioned that we follow the industry pattern. Because when the policies are not favorable, and when there is decrease of sales of new vehicles, so the auto business will be limited. We have to put the focus on non-auto business development. Last year, we reformed greatly the organization, new structure on non-auto business. We have a group customer resource management center. I believe that this kind of reform will be an important assurance for the development in this area. I just mentioned the three patterns. I believe that they are, they can be categorized as long-term enablers for such a good performance in non-auto business. For non-auto business operation, we did some work, for example, on health insurance, liability insurance, and individual non-auto business. We did a lot of work.
In the first half, for the health business, the growth rate is 26.3%, and the liabilities insurance had a growth rate of 35.1%. I want to mention that individual non-auto business growth is over 40%. As to health business, we decline the business layout in the right to product supply. And for those good performing individual and group commercial health insurance products, we increase the sales proportion, and contribution. We also accelerated the business development of commercial health business, including mid and high-end medical products. On liabilities insurance, we focus on the new development pattern of the country and accelerated the quality business development in this regard. On important areas, such as social governance and technology innovation, we also did something to enhance our company's vitality. This might be some short-term enablers.
So in the first half, non-auto combined ratio is 7.7%. For health, the combined ratio is down by 1.1 percentage points. For auto insurance, the combined ratio is down by 2.4 percentage points. As to individual non-auto business development is quite good, and contribution is quite good. And the contribution from individual auto business accounts for more than 50% of the overall non-auto business. So NEV is indeed a popular topic. In the first half, our company's NEV business development keeps consistent growth with industry. In the past, the premium proportion from NEV is just single digit, but this year, the proportion is double digit, up by 3.7 percentage points. However, there is still a mismatch between gasoline-fueled vehicles and NEV.
For example, the sales of new cars, including NEV and gasoline-fueled vehicles, is only 9.something%, and for gasoline-fueled vehicles, that is only 0.3%. But the accident rate on NEV is quite high. And besides, there are more cars on the road. So the cost on NEV business is over 100%, about 101%. So the performance is good, but we face headwinds on cost. We greatly value NEV business. We construct a business management system, which is different than the one on the gasoline-fueled vehicles. We call this system literally 4 systems and 16 capabilities. This is like a strategic arrangement. The strategy is aimed to improving competitiveness going forward.
In the current circumstance, our goal is that as a growth rate on any business should be modest or let's say, moderate, and we also want to have an ideal combined cost. And besides, we want to have a proper business mix, so this is like our strategy. I believe all of these moves, covering these systems, capabilities, and strategies, would be useful for us to address challenges. As to OEMs cross-industry operation, we are optimistic about it, and we hold an open mind about it because auto companies have data advantages, and insurance companies have actuarial experience pricing advantages. So with these auto companies, OEMs, we enhance the headquarter-to-headquarter communication. We want to share resources, build ecosystem together, and we want to have win-win progress. Thank you. Thank you. As to critical illness, I will answer your question.
We have been paying close attention to the sales of critical illness products. We also did a lot of customer survey. We find that there are some features on critical illness business in China. Specifically, customers keep increasing their awareness for the protection through this type of product, and the demand gap is widening, and the customers continue to be more holding an attitude of accepting critical illness products. So I feel that, for critical illness, health insurance products... I mean, critical illness product, health insurance product, and life insurance product, the demands will continue to be booming. That is the foundation for us. So we need to change. The customers want more diversified, customized, and fragmented products. In the past, one product could succeed hugely, but it is no longer the case currently.
So insurance companies need to, based on customers' needs at different life stages, to provide solution. When we do customer survey, customers want we to know them and then to offer them solutions rather than one product. And in addition, products are not sufficient for them. They want services. So apart from protection, apart from a payment-related solution, they also want to have a whole package of solution covering healthcare, prevention, and medical services. So for these features, in last August, or rather October, specifically in or in Q4, we launched a product called Ai Xiang Jin Sheng. Within one month, we sold it to more than 100,000 customers. And this year, following the product switch, we upgraded our critical illness product. And the latest new product, we call it Jin Sheng Wu You .
If you would have any interest on the product, you may have a look at it. That product may meet the basic, critical illness demands. It also has several riders to meet customers' protection needs based on the different life stages. And in the long run, why the sales performance on critical illness is not good? The core reason is not related to demands, but is related to supply. Because critical illness products are not easy to sell. Why? Because it is against humanity. It is not what customers want. It is what customers need. When we talk about being old, being sick, and death, and disability. So people do not want to touch these topics. But for those customers who want to buy such protection product, insurance companies would feel scared.
So it means that our team should be able to conduct a one-on-one selling based on customers' conditions, and help customer to realize that life's risks can be guarded against through insurance. So we will continue to improve our sales team's capabilities. In addition, in the long run, we still stick to the product, the Golden Triangle, covering wealth, protection, and retirement. Based on customers' needs on these three fronts, we provide a package of solutions. So if things would be ideal, then for the Golden Angle, one-third should be for protection for customers, and one-third for customers' retirement, and one-third for customers' wealth retention. That would make for a stable product portfolio. Thank you. Thank you. I want to add a few words. In the context of green finance and low-carbon transformation, NEV's future will be bright.
Along with technology progress and risk management improvement, the profitability going forward is bound to improve. In many new emerging areas in P&C, this pattern has been approved. Our team stationed in Tiguan, Volkswagen, is organizing an investor day for P&C. On 1 July, we organized a Life Investor Day, and the results were quite good. So recently, we're organizing such Investor Day for P&C, where we invite all of you for an in-depth communication. Thank you. I'm Kaushani, analyst from Orient Securities. I have two questions. First question is about our liabilities side on Life. We know that in the long run, in China, there's still a lot of growth, room for saving and deposits. However, based on our understanding, market still cares about performance in the midterm and short term, especially since the August product switch, the sales performance go down.
But we know that the company has adequate supply, so would there be any expectations for a potential recovery on the short-term and medium-term demands? And you just mentioned that the short-term-driven model is chained to our regular operation model, while we understand that our peers still have red door period. So in this way, would you face headwinds on red door period relative growth? The second question is about assets. In Q1, Q2, asset, or let's say, capital market performance is quite diversified. What's your view on macroeconomy, stock market performance and interest rate? How about allocation on fixed income, assets, and equity, equity assets? And on EV, we see investment experience has negativity bias. So would you consider to adjust investment return rate? I will talk about your red door period. Actually, we no longer do red door period work this year.
On 1st of January or 2nd of January, the performance registered negative growth. But by this January, the performance is quite similar to the performance last January, and in Q1, the performance is quite robust. And in last, in Q4 and in December, our business keeps a robust growth. So for us, we feel that this is not about, one day or one month, it is about, managing performance for one whole year. This is about managing a team, so we need stability. Because, that kind of business model is not sustainable. That is not, very reasonable for customers. There's no reason for customers to, for the sake of our red door period, wait for policy issuance next year and, have no protection during the gap period. So we no longer rely on red door period. Everything is regular.
We sell products regularly, and we recruit people regularly. In the first half, we still have an obvious performance. Thank you for your question from Orient Securities. Your question, economic, situation and interest rate movement. On the thoughts of allocation, I would like to address to your question. We feel that things are still not so certain for the macro economy, and we need to have a sober awareness of the fluctuation of the situation. In the overseas markets, there's continuous rate hike, and there is deflation, so there is a downward economic pressure. Globally, political uncertainties continue to progress. Internally, the domestic market still does not have sufficient growth point. So for external demands, we see a downward trend, and for internal domestic demand, we see consumption sluggish related to property market. Local governments at many levels are adopting measures.
There are many complicated elements affecting the fluctuation of the asset prices, so we need to have a sober mind. As to stock market performance and interest rates, we feel that the stock market will continue its fluctuation, so we need to focus on overseas liquidity and domestic policy expectations. For stock market, the A-share market or H share market, we feel that valuation is sitting at a historical low level. A lot of positive policies are issued and liquidity is lax, so these support the bottom of the market, and in this weekend, many policies are issued supporting the market. In terms of risk or return rate on asset classes, we feel a stock market has obvious advantages from the valuation perspective, and also the interest rate is low. However, enterprises' profitability growth is affected by weak demands.
We assume that the stock market will continue the fluctuation. This is our opinion in the short term. Well, it's hard to say our short-term thoughts are correct, but later I will talk about my thoughts in the long term. Well, anyway, overseas liquidity and domestic policies are key elements affecting the market fluctuation. As to interest rates, we feel, it will continue to fluctuate at a low level. The key focus would be on market interest rate. Market leverage is fairly high, so that might heighten the fluctuation of interest rate. As the demands, both at home and abroad, are weak, so we expect some monetary policy will still be ease and the low interest rate environment will not change.
After the interest rate decrease in June and August, the 10-year T bond has a very low rate, so that is 2.6%. So we need to focus on the trend of market interest rate. I feel that many institutions have consistent view on the low interest rate trend and the current environment. So as I said, leverage is still high, so we need to focus on interest rate fluctuation and to be prepared. Also affected by the interest rate difference between China and U.S., as well as exchange rate. So for example, in U.S., the 10-year T bond rate is 4.2, and in China, that rate is 2.6. So exchange rate will also be affected. This is our thoughts on the macroeconomy. As to the second question you raised regarding the allocation on assets.
I believe the analysts here have already read some data from the insurance industry. If we look at our group's performance, the past five-year performance and 10-year performance, our assets performance has been in a leading position. So it means that we are robust and proactive, otherwise, we won't have long-term excessive return. But of course, we have a sound risk management control system supporting it. So for the second half, we feel that stock market is good for a long-term allocation because there are positive policies. So second half should be a good opportunity to invest in quality stocks. We were quite proactive on that. And second, we have our fundamentals research system refers that short-term fluctuation is not important for long-term investors.
We use market fluctuation to gradually increase allocation of quality stocks when they sit at a low level, for creating long-term competitiveness and creating a good equity portfolio. Allocation. Currently, we value those stocks with low valuation and high dividend. In the past two years, we did so, and performance was good. For example, we can see performance on our OCI portfolio. The return is 8%. Second, we will look at some rare and monopoly-related-based assets and resource assets. Third, we will look at the quality companies who are related to China's economic transformation, like technology and consumption. Basically, these are the three directions for our allocation. As to fixed income assets, we may adopt a diversified strategy to address to the low interest rate challenge.
The interest rate is on secular decline, imposing big pressure for long-term allocation for us, because valuation will be affected, so we need to adopt several strategies. To begin with, we will enhance pricing capabilities on long-term interest rates, improve the effectiveness of allocation. We will seek for a proper allocation window. In the first half, we increased allocation of some bank-subordinated debts and agreement deposits, increasing CPIC Life's investment return rates. And for those with lower investment return rates, we will proactively optimize an adjustment on relevant assets we hold. And second, we will use flexible trading strategy to seek for trading opportunities from market fluctuation. And third, we will invest in new types. For example, public fund risks, T-bonds, futures, and ABS. And last, we will focus on high quality, long duration types.
So we assume that local government debts with long duration will be issued rapidly in the second half, so we will focus on that. I will answer the third question. Investment return rate and risk discount rate are very important assumptions for EV valuation and MPV valuation. So our company refer to the actual investment return rate. And based on our future allocation on strategic assets, we will prudently evaluate the assumptions. So we will also, in the annual report, disclose the sensitivities of both rates for your reference. As to the interest rate secular decline, as well as fluctuation in the equity market, we will also have evaluation regularly to see whether there are need, that we may adjust the assumptions. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. He wei from Shanghai Securities News.
In the first seven months, a lot of high interest rates products are sold. But we also mentioned that there are headwinds from the secular decline of interest rates, and also there are fluctuations. So some insurance companies' performance included such elements, and such performance is quite evident of such elements. So how do you view the loss from difference of interest rate? Another question is for the August product switch. How is the switch progress, and what will be the new moves on product and marketing strategies? Thank you. I will answer your question on interest rate loss. So basically, the evaluation interest rate and pricing interest rate basically are about 2.82%, similar to the ones used by peers. And second, on participating universal, universal insurance, we provide customers with dividends and credit interest rates.
We also have an adjustment mechanism. In the current situation, we don't feel that we have risk on loss from difference of interest rates... So in the long run, we're quite optimistic about it, and we hold an appreciative attitude towards regulators for the timely adjustment on the interest rate. That is good for the long-term and steady development for life insurance. Thank you. I will add a few more words. So we raised that 3.5% is a reasonable guidance by regulators on industry's health and stable development. Well, for insurance companies, our biggest challenge is the risk of assets and liability match, because we implemented new accounting standards, so the assets fair value are changes, affecting a lot of our financial opportunities. And also previously mentioned that institutions adopt different standards, so the net profits are not consistent.
So that would also affect the market, as the way the market looks at the valuation of insurance will be different. For insurance companies, we care more about the long-term net worth growth and shareholders' equities growth. So on the liability side, we want to reasonably control cost and optimize product strategy and control interest rate difference. On the investment side, I think we need to decrease the assets and liability duration gap. Tactically, we need to consider how to control the overall risk exposure and have a reasonable investment portfolio. We also need to consider how to use our mechanisms, processes, and systems to manage and control risks. And I think this is quite important. In addition, we need to fully utilize the liquidity premium of alternative investments. This brings us with investment return advantage.
As to product switch, we basically have specified our future product direction. Even if we have this switch from an interest rate of 3.5% to 3%, currently, the interest rate is going down in China, and consumption investment needs are stable. So the general public still needs to save and to retain wealth. After the product switch, it will not be possible that we will see a sharp decline on sales performance, so we still feel the needs are still there. Second, for the 18 months roadmap, that focuses on channel transformation, the building of individual business teams, and the focus of a value-based bank insurance. So we have already completed our tasks based on the plan. So in the next step, we need to improve our capabilities for our sales agents.
The product switch is not just a challenge, it is more like opportunity. So that means in the second half, we'll focus on product optimization and upgrading to diversify the products, decreasing the product concentration. Initially, we focused on the term life insurance products with enhanced sum assured, and recently we upgraded the critical illness products, delivering a good result. Our sales capabilities are improving, and we will further enhancing our training system to improve sales capabilities. So retirement products with participating and saving features will be the next focus. Thank you.
Now we will open the floor to the participants joining.
... Thank you, management team. I have two questions about life. One, I see for core agents, there is an obvious improvement on productivity and revenue. I have a puzzle. I feel that when productivity goes up significantly, there should be a significant increase on the core sales agents. And I understand that as a company, it's right that it is a hope to stabilize the number of core agents. I believe the core agents are the most important sales channel. Would you please describe, like, the profile of this channel, their age, their living condition, and the scale? It's my first question about core sales agents. Second question is about profitability of products. In the current situation, it is not easy to improve the profitability. So the profitability mainly comes from insurance.
How do we view the movement of such rates, and when can we see obvious improvement of profitability from the agent channel? Thank you. Thank you. First question is about core sales agent. This is, a focus for us, transforming the agents team. We want to change from the headcount development to productivity development. So last year, when we did the transformation, the first priority is to increase productivity and revenue of core sales agents. When they make money, they can have stable, work. They can have a long-term career-based development, and they can improve customers' services. So at transformation, we basically stopped recruiting. We focused on the remaining people, focusing on their productivity and, capabilities. We want to have bad performers leave the team. So after six months of transformation, the team is basically stabilized. Productivity is up, and morale is up.
So in the second half, this year, we gradually entered into a recovery stage. We built the selection capabilities of team leaders, and we enhanced the selection capabilities for them. Starting from second half of last year, the newcomers recruitments started to be back to normal. We do not want to recruit tens of thousands of people every month. We basically recruit several thousands of people. And right now, the 13-month retention rate has already reached 30%. We hope that this ratio can grow to 50%. In this way, when newcomers are here, they can earn money, and then they can have long-term and sustainable growth. So in the last June, we have a turning point on business, and in this June, we want to have a turning point on core sales agents. And indeed, the requirements on core sales agents are improving every year.
One key point in the amended basic law is that we want to increase productivity of core sales agents. In this way, they get bonus, be it quarterly or annually. This is a long-term design from the amended basic law. As to profitability rate, we see improvement on the bank insurance profitability and individual business MBV margin. While the bank insurance improvement is higher. So actually, the improvement for the individual business is quite obvious, but because of the product switch in Q3, and with a lot of short payment period products coming in, so the overall margin rate is affected. But in the long run, we hope the value margin can gradually go up. We don't focus on managing value margin. We focus on managing the overall growth of MBV.
We focus on customers, and we want to meet customers' needs at the different stages of their lives. To sum up, we want to steadily improve the sustainable development of the two channels. Thank you. In the interest of time, we will have the last question. Still for the online participant. Rick Zhao from Morgan Stanley.
Thank you, management, for this opportunity. I'm Rick Zhao from Morgan Stanley. I have two questions. One is about profits and the new accounting standards.
... The net profits fluctuation in the industry is big. In the first half, your company's net profits and OPAT are quite stable. Going forward, are we going to focus more on OPAT to reflect company's performance and to relate it to dividends? And what would be our thought on the full year OPAT or net profits? As to the second question, as we know that the sensitivity of NBV and VIF to long-term investment, return rate is higher, so market might be worried about it. What is the company's view? And along with dividend payout ratio going up or going down, are we going to see a decrease on the sensitivity? I will answer your question. This year, with implementation of new accounting standards, so net profits go down by 8%, and OPAT has a growth of 20.5%.
That is a result of the persistence on long-term steady development. We know that, fluctuation on net profits on the new standards will be bigger because, there will be more assets putting onto FVTPL, so naturally, people focus on OPAT. As to OPAT, I want to clarify that for P&C business, we will no longer take net profits as a basis for P&C's OPAT. So for P&C and health OPAT investment, we have an interest rate target. Why? Because that is related to the fluctuation on net profits. Second, under the new accounting standards, we will continue to pay attention to OPAT. We also have observed some changes from OPAT, and these changes are related to the market. We will continue to analyze the OPAT changes, and in due course, disclose information. Thank you. Thank you, the management team, for your answers.
Prior to the meeting, we collected questions from investors on topics. Okay, in the meeting, we also collected relevant questions, and the questions from investors cover product switch, P&C NEV strategy, thoughts on capital market and asset allocation strategy. These questions were communicated comprehensively in the Q&A session. In the interest of time, our company will give replies in writing to other questions raised in the webcast. Thank you very much for your attention to CPIC. Should there be any further questions, please feel free to contact our team. This conference will now come to a close. Goodbye!