BEIJING, Nov. 20 (InfoChina) – China Life Insurance Co., Ltd. (LFC.NYSE, 2628.HK) and its parent company China Life Insurance Group have so far held a combined 26.7 billion worth shares in listed Chinese banks, according to incomplete statistics.

China Life’s interest in banks just echoes with the company’s long-term strategy of “making banking one of its core business lines” as Yang Chao, chairman of the company, put it. Yang earlier pledged to enforce investment in banking industry if the supervisory conditions permit.

       China Life and its parent company are regarded as China’s biggest commercial insurance giant in terms of assets. They subscribed for more than 10 billion yuan worth A and H shares in the initial public offering of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) in October, becoming the biggest institutional investor of the bank. The listing company spent 4 billion yuan to dominate a 38.46 percent.

       The Agricultural Bank of China (ABC), the only unlisted bank among China’s Big Four Banks, will be the next target of China Life, the president of which has expressed his willingness to cooperate with China Life earlier.

       China Life raked in 160.105 billion yuan in insurance premiums in the first ten months of the year, which significantly raises the total assets of the company and the quotas allowed to be injected in equity investment will increase accordingly.