The insurance regulatory authorities of the Chinese mainland and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region have joined hands to fight illegal insurancepolicies, according to a senior Chinese insurance official.

Li Kemu, vice chairman of the China Insurance Regulatory Commission, signed an insurance regulatory cooperative agreement here Friday with Richard Yuen, Hong Kong's Commissioner of Insurance. Li said that the agreement marks a new stage of cooperation between the mainland and Hong Kong in the insurance industry.

The agreement covers broad areas of insurance regulation that will effectively promote mutual understanding of regulatory practices, exchange regulatory experience and timely sharing of regulatory information.

China's insurance industry has been developing fairly rapidly over the past few years. At the end of last month, the country's total insurance assets amounted to 1.15 trillion yuan (about 138.6billion US dollars), up 37.8 percent from last year.