Shanghai's tech insurance sector is receiving fresh policy support, with a risk protection network spanning the entire sci-tech innovation chain rapidly taking shape—from research and development, pilot testing, to commercialization and transaction safeguards. On September 14, the Shanghai Financial Regulatory Bureau issued the "Opinions on Advancing the Quality and Efficiency of Banking and Insurance Sci-Tech Finance in Shanghai" (referred to as the "Opinions"), rolling out 17 measures across four key areas: professional capabilities in sci-tech finance, product service systems, ecosystem mechanisms, and risk control. The goal is to foster a virtuous cycle between technology, industry, and finance, while bolstering Shanghai's (Yangtze River Delta) development as an international sci-tech innovation center. Within this framework, the Opinions lay out systematic requirements for the insurance sector's support of sci-tech finance, covering both liability and asset sides: on the liability side, insurers are urged to accelerate the construction of an insurance product system covering the full innovation chain, strengthen applied research on M&A insurance in the tech sector, and explore pilot programs in leading industries; on the asset side, insurance funds are encouraged to increase capital commitments to venture capital, equity, and M&A funds.
A source from a Shanghai-based property and casualty insurer told Yicai that the supply of tech insurance in the city is evolving from "standalone products" to "full-chain governance." The Opinions specifically highlight exploration of M&A insurance within the technology sphere, signaling that the boundaries of tech insurance are stretching from "protecting R&D and commercialization" to "protecting transactions." Shanghai aims to close the entire risk chain from laboratory breakthroughs to industrial deployment.
Shanghai's tech insurance is moving toward a "full-chain" model, with its product matrix accelerating. In the construction of the Shanghai (Yangtze River Delta) international sci-tech innovation center, the hesitations along the innovation chain—fears of "daring to do, daring to try, or daring to transform"—are precisely what insurance, acting as a "shock absorber" and "stabilizer," is designed to mitigate. The Opinions center on "full-chain" coverage, requiring the rapid development of an insurance product system for the entire innovation process. This includes targeting key stages such as tech talent entrepreneurship, R&D by tech enterprises, technology commercialization, application promotion, and intellectual property utilization and protection, pushing insurers to offer innovative products like R&D liability insurance, pilot-run insurance, equipment loss insurance, intellectual property insurance, and cost-loss compensation insurance for tech commercialization. Additionally, it calls for reinforced insurance support for first adoption of new tech, major technological breakthroughs, technical upgrades in key sectors, and equipment renewal. For small and medium-sized tech enterprises with common risk profiles, standardized, low-premium, and foundational inclusive insurance packages are to be introduced.
Over the past year-plus, Shanghai has steadily rolled out policies on tech insurance. In 2024, the city's property insurance industry established a dedicated tech insurance working group; the same year, the "Shanghai Tech Insurance Product Catalog" was unveiled, forming a matrix of over 170 products. In June 2025, the Shanghai Financial Regulatory Bureau and the Shanghai Science and Technology Commission jointly issued the "Guiding Opinions on Promoting High-Quality Development of Tech Insurance in Shanghai," calling for a product framework that spans the full innovation chain and the entire lifecycle of tech enterprises. By March 2026, the National Financial Regulatory Administration and other bodies jointly issued the "Several Opinions on Accelerating High-Quality Development of Tech Insurance to Strongly Support High-Level Sci-Tech Self-Reliance," which explicitly backs Shanghai (Yangtze River Delta) and other international sci-tech innovation centers to become "first-launch sites" for tech insurance innovation.
Industry insiders view the current Opinions as another extension of Shanghai's innovative thinking and full-chain direction for tech insurance. In fact, several tech insurance products mentioned in the document have already seen successful implementation in Shanghai. For instance, on July 2, CPIC P&C Insurance's Shanghai branch signed a technology commercialization cost-loss insurance policy with Tongji University's Shanghai Tongji Science Park Incubator Co., Ltd., marking the city's first incubator-type commercialization cost-loss insurance. Meanwhile, China Life Property & Casualty's Shanghai branch has focused on the pilot-testing phase of embodied AI—a critical commercialization step—developing a pilot insurance system covering the full cycle of R&D, testing, and application.
According to data from the Shanghai Financial Regulatory Bureau, tech insurance protection in Shanghai has been steadily improving. In the first half of 2026, the insured amount for sci-tech activity risk insurance business exceeded RMB 660 billion. On the "talent" front, the Opinions also require Shanghai's insurance industry to expand coverage for tech innovation professionals and related personnel, improving the quality and efficiency of health management, elderly care, and professional liability insurance.
Mechanism-level changes are equally noteworthy. In the "strengthening professional capabilities" section, the Opinions encourage insurers to establish a fault-tolerance mechanism for tech insurance innovation, permitting greater tolerance in assessing comprehensive loss ratios and combined cost ratios for innovative products still in their incubation phase or lacking historical data. The aforementioned P&C insurance source believes this will ease the assessment burden for innovative tech insurance products, enabling a transition from first policy to broader scale.
Among the various tech insurance types highlighted in the Opinions, M&A insurance stands out as one of the few specifically singled out. "Strengthen applied research on M&A insurance in the technology sector and explore pilot programs in leading industries," the Opinions emphasize. M&A insurance, formally known as warranty and indemnity (W&I) insurance, is a commercial insurance product tailored for M&A transactions, available in both buyer-side and seller-side policies. "W&I insurance covers claims arising from a seller's breach of representations and warranties made during a business sale. With it, sellers can avoid having sale proceeds locked in third-party escrow accounts; for buyers, even if the seller cannot pay damages, the insurance ensures that the seller's guarantees remain enforceable within a set period after transaction closing," explained AIG Insurance.
The P&C insurance source noted that this business is well-established in North America and Europe but remains at a nascent stage in Asia. The source analyzed that tech M&A, particularly cross-border deals, carries significant risks: target companies may lack established technology roadmaps, valuations can lack clear benchmarks, and cross-border transactions are further complicated by legal, tax, and compliance differences, making due diligence insufficient to cover all risk exposures. In leading industries, where M&A activity is intense, technology evolves rapidly, and deals can be complex, the demand for risk management tools is especially pressing.
Yicai observed that the "Several Measures on Leveraging Direct Financing Functions in Shanghai to Further Strengthen Sci-Tech Financial Services," released in July of this year, has already proposed providing support for national-level M&A funds, leveraging the role of Shanghai's state-owned M&A fund matrix, attracting and aggregating market-oriented M&A funds, and facilitating M&A transactions along tech enterprise industry chains. It also encourages domestic insurers to engage in technical cooperation with overseas institutions to develop and launch localized M&A insurance products. This suggests that M&A integration and technology introduction in key leading industries—such as integrated circuits, biomedicine, and artificial intelligence—are poised to gain more suitable insurance tools. For Chinese tech companies accelerating overseas expansion, a localized W&I policy serves both as risk protection and a competitive edge in bidding—in cross-border tenders, buyers with insurance arranged are often favored by sellers.
Shanghai's insurance industry has already accumulated practical experience in W&I insurance. For example, Ping An P&C Insurance's Shanghai branch has publicly disclosed that it provided over USD 1.5 billion in M&A insurance coverage in 2025, spanning more than 150 countries globally. How can M&A insurance be further developed to enable "pilot first trials"? A representative from PICC Reinsurance wrote in "Shanghai Insurance" that M&A insurance should actively align with the trend of Chinese enterprises expanding overseas. Three recommendations were put forward: first, tailor products to local conditions, adapting international versions of W&I insurance to align with Chinese legal and tax realities to create localized offerings; second, cultivate talent, gradually building professional underwriting teams; and third, strengthen international cooperation to help Chinese enterprises better understand seller risks while mastering the key elements of underwriting and claims to drive rapid business growth.
Industry experts point out that tech insurance still faces common challenges, including difficulty in risk assessment and precise pricing. Therefore, while the Opinions emphasize "enriching supply" of tech insurance, they also mandate that insurance institutions fulfill their risk control responsibilities and robustly manage tech insurance risks. Insurers are supported in dispersing major technological breakthrough risks through co-insurance and reinsurance arrangements, and exploring special risk transfer tools to channel social capital into risk diversification. The Shanghai Financial Regulatory Bureau stated that it will continue to guide banking and insurance institutions in the region to comprehensively enhance sci-tech finance quality and efficiency, build a multi-layered, specialized sci-tech finance supply system, continuously optimize the financial service structure, and persistently improve the effectiveness of finance in enabling scientific innovation and the development of new quality productive forces.