SHANGHAI: The Shanghai insurance industry took in 40.7 billion yuan in premium payments in 2006, ranking the city fourth in nation, the Shanghai Bureau of China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC) said yesterday.

The top three markets were Jiangsu Province, Guangdong Province and Beijing.

The total included 10.1 billion yuan for property insurance, up 15.3 percent, 26.5 billion yuan for life insurance, up 23.7 percent, and 3.1 billion yuan for health insurance, up 32.2 percent. Shanghai's insurance premiums accounted for 7 percent of the country's total.

"The mixture of insurance products is quite good in Shanghai," said Li Feng, director of Property and Casualty Supervisory Division of CIRC Shanghai Bureau. "Car insurance accounts for under 50 percent of the total property insurance, which allows for diversified business."

Premiums from car insurance accounted for 49.8 percent of the property insurance and totalled 5.2 billion yuan. With a yearly growth of 21.7 percent over 2005, car insurance became the fastest growing sector in property insurance of Shanghai.

"The Shanghai market for car insurance expanded quickly after the country introduced regulations on compulsory liability insurance," said Zhu Yiwei, deputy director of Statistics and Research Division of CIRC Shanghai Bureau.

"But home loan insurance posted a large decrease," he said, as it plummeted 94 percent to 26 million yuan after many banks waived insurance requirements when issuing home loans.

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