Another factor that sparked margin expansion was higher payment volume.

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China Life said its sales force of about 740, 000 agents will be focused more on higher-margin policy sales rather than short-term or single payment products.

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Payment of invoices to repairers can stretch long beyond what is acceptable, starving a low margin business even further.

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Sales at First Data's other two businesses (payment processing for merchants and credit card services), which had a combined 21% operating margin, were flat.

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