Financial product online marketing rules take effect: insurance marketers need institutional authorisation

From 30 September 2026, anyone promoting an insurance policy in a short video must first answer two questions: are you the institution's person, and is this the institution's account?

The Measures for the Administration of Online Marketing of Financial Products were issued jointly by eight bodies: the People's Bank of China, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the State Administration for Market Regulation, the National Financial Regulatory Administration, the China Securities Regulatory Commission, the China National Intellectual Property Administration, the Cyberspace Administration of China and the State Administration of Foreign Exchange. They carry Announcement No. 9 of 2026 and are dated 21 April 2026; Xinhua and the CSRC website published the full text on 24 April 2026. Article 3 lists insurance among financial products.

Article 16: people, accounts and content all go through the institution

Paragraph 1 of Article 16 provides that financial products marketed through official accounts, livestreams or short videos may be marketed only on a financial institution's own platform, or through an account the institution has lawfully opened on a third-party internet platform. Marketers must meet three conditions at once: they must be employees of the financial institution, hold the qualifications required for the business concerned, and have the institution's authorisation and consent.

Marketers must be institution employees, be qualified and be authorised. All three are required.

Article 3 defines an "own platform" as a website, mobile application or similar that the financial institution operates independently and with full data rights. Paragraph 2 of Article 2 provides that organisations or individuals other than financial institutions and third-party internet platforms may not conduct, or conduct in disguise, online marketing of financial products.

The institution is also responsible. Article 16 requires financial institutions to bear management responsibility for their staff's online marketing conduct, to strengthen traceability and to keep the relevant video, audio and text materials for inspection. Article 7 adds that these channels must use marketing content reviewed and approved by the financial institution.

Platforms must also check

Article 16 requires third-party internet platforms to verify the credentials and qualifications of marketing entities. According to the text on the CSRC website, platforms must display the relevant credentials on the home page of marketing accounts and suspend services to, or close, non-compliant accounts. Article 18 provides that, without the relevant qualifications or regulatory consent, financial wording may not be used in the names of websites, applications or user accounts, and the name of a marketing entity must match its licensed qualification.

Red lines on sales claims, and penalties

Item (4) of Article 10 prohibits exaggerating insurance liability or product returns, and also prohibits simplistic comparisons of insurance returns with deposits, asset management products and the like. Article 32 states that a financial institution in breach may face supervisory measures including a warning letter, a supervisory talk, an order to rectify and administrative penalties. Article 35 provides that any institution or individual that breaches Article 16 and certain other provisions, and conducts online marketing for illegal financial activities or non-compliant financial business, is penalised in accordance with the law once the financial regulator has made a determination.

On the eve of enforcement: review, registration, training

Beijing Business Today reporter Li Xiumei published a report on 29 September 2026, reproduced by Sina Finance, describing adjustments in the insurance industry ahead of the new rules. The institutions interviewed were not named. According to the report:

• One insurance intermediary produces its marketing content centrally through a headquarters team. Content is submitted for compliance review through WeCom (enterprise WeChat), with the process logged, and is published only after approval, on official certified corporate accounts and an internal sales-material platform.
• One insurer requires front-line agents to register their accounts in the company's internal monitoring system once created. The system is managed centrally by the head office compliance department, and branch compliance staff monitor it daily.
• Some insurers have asked lawyers to brief agents on self-media compliance and traceable management. Some branches have explained the compliance boundaries for WeChat Moments, short videos and livestreams in a special consumer-protection session led by senior executives. Zhongbao Education, which is under the Insurance Association of China, has also run an online class interpreting the Measures.

According to Beijing Business Today, after its related reports were published, some accounts took down videos or deleted themselves outright. Xiaohongshu, Douyin and WeChat Channels have cleared content and accounts ahead of time, but one internet insurance intermediary said that "the scale and standards of clean-up are not entirely consistent", and there are as yet no clear penalty cases in the market. The newspaper says it examined accounts of several hundred insurance institutions and more than a thousand insurance short videos, and found that non-compliant claims persist, such as exaggerating claims coverage and comparing returns with bank deposits.

Analysis: what it means for recruiting teams

What follows is editorial analysis. The Measures contain no provision aimed specifically at insurance agents' personal accounts, but the requirements in Article 16 on staff qualifications, authorisation and account ownership have narrowed the room for agents to find customers on their own through personal accounts. Teams that rely on personal short videos or livestreams to attract customers need to reassess their approach.

On cost, there are currently no verifiable figures or percentages. However, given the content review, account registration, record keeping and special training described in the report, the workload of front-line and compliance staff may rise, and onboarding training will need to cover online marketing compliance.

That platform standards are not yet uniform and no penalty cases have been seen does not mean it is safe to wait and see. A more prudent course for team leaders is to take stock of members' existing accounts and authorisation status and bring them into line with the provisions, rather than waiting for the first case to appear.