Hong Kong Insurance Authority looks back at past year

Hong Kong’s Insurance Authority (IA) has published its annual report for 2020–2021, titled Embracing the New Normal, which gave an overview of the regulator’s activities and major developments in the Hong Kong insurance industry.

“The IA has captured opportunities afforded by the national strategy of dual circulation and closer connectivity between cities within the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, reinforcing the role of Hong Kong as a global risk management centre and regional insurance hub,” said Clement Cheung, chief executive of the IA. “Issuance of the first catastrophe bond, operationalisation of the group-wide supervision framework, as well as sharpened focus on green and sustainable, finance are some notable achievements.”

The report, which is available on the IA’s website, also contains the IA’s efforts in expediting the implementation of the Risk-based Capital Regime, updating design parameters of the Policy Holders’ Protection Scheme and increasing knowledge of lifetime risk profiling among the general public.

“In the face of COVID-19, we rolled out targeted relief measures by allowing distribution of specific insurance products without face-to-face interaction with the customers and providing flexibility for insurance intermediaries to meet the deadline for filing statutory submissions and to fulfil the required hours of continuing professional development,” Cheung said. “The chance was taken to spur adoption of insurtech through virtual on-boarding and open application programming interfaces. Furthermore, the IA streamlined the licensing process by enhancing functionalities of the e-portal, kick-started the renewal exercise for deemed licensees, commenced its disciplinary mechanism and intensified cooperation with other fellow financial regulators via joint inspections and Mystery Shopping Programmes.”