Net profit rose to 31.9 billion yuan ($4.5 billion) in the three months to Sept. 30 from 21.3 billion yuan a year earlier, Ping An said in a Hong Kong stock market filing on Thursday.

In the first nine months of 2019, Ping An's life and health insurance business, the group's main profit driver, generated 68.4 million yuan in operating profit, up 31.2% year on year.

Ping An had benefited from sales promotions on "high-value, high-protection" life and health insurance products, the company filing said.

The group's board also approved a new joint-venture consumer finance entity, it said in a separate announcement.

Ping An Insurance is the controlling shareholder of Ping An Bank, which this week reported a 16% rise in third-quarter net profit.

($1 = 7.0716 Chinese yuan renminbi)

(Reporting by Cheng Leng in Beijing and Engen Tham in Shanghai; Editing by David Goodman)