Twenty-one senior managers in insurance companies were removed from post for inappropriate conduct in the first quarter of this year, an increase of 61.54 percent from a year earlier, according to the China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC).

CIRC said in a statement that it had sent 189 teams across the country which examined 263 insurance institutions including life and property companies, branches, and intermediaries.

Some 234 branches of insurance companies and insurance intermediary institutions incurred 235 administrative penalties from CIRC and its local offices, up 213.33 percent year on year.