More bonds, please, say China insurers

China's life insurance companies have adopted asset-liability matching, but as a result find themselves short of instruments to invest in that reflect the long-term nature of their obligations. "Our problem is lack of supply in the bond market," says Raymond Tam, a member of Taiping Life Insurance's investment committee in Shanghai. The situation is less acute for Taiping, which is a newer company and did not write policies with guaranteed payouts reflecting the high interest ra…