In the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak in Shanghai city in East China, the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Commerce – along with the Shanghai branch of China Export & Credit Insurance Corporation, or Sinosure – has acted.

They recently launched 10 service measures to help local firms cope with insurance problems during the pandemic and in a bid to help stabilize the city's overall foreign trade.

The measures are as follows:

I. Fintech support will be strengthened for online services to ensure that the normal insurance and claims requirements of companies will not be affected by the pandemic.

II. "Single window" service support will be increased to support work from home.

III. Businesses affected by the pandemic that cannot timely declare as stipulated in the insurance policy will have restrictions on acceptances relaxed without affecting the policy rights and interests of the enterprise.

IV. For cases where the enterprise is unable to judge the risk status temporarily or wishes to postpone reporting a loss or claim, restrictions will be relaxed on the acceptance of claims.  

V. A premium holding mechanism will be established for insured businesses whose insurance premiums cannot be paid on time due to the pandemic.

VI. A quick compensation mechanism will be established.

VII. Further increased support for inclusive finance.

VIII. Further increased financing support for credit insurance.

IX. Shanghai municipal and district commercial departments – together with Sinosure and business departments in each jurisdiction – will carry out policy promotions, purchases of services, risk training and other activities to expand the coverage of policies.

X. For operational defects in policy performances, applications and claims applications caused by the pandemic, Sinosure will moderately relax underwriting and claim settlement conditions according to the actual business situation. It will also proactively guide enterprises to carry out a professional risk response.