Issue No.225
Establishment of the Independent Insurance Authority (IIA)
The Insurance Companies (Amendment) Ordinance 2015 was passed by the Legislative Council on 10 July 2015. This opened a new and important chapter of the Hong Kong insurance industry.
As the representative body of the insurance industry, the HKFI is glad to have played an instrumental role in this important project over the past five years and helped achieve a satisfactory outcome for the good of the industry and consumers.
What’s next? From the Government we understand that the Provisional Insurance Authority will be set up by the end of 2015. It will first start taking over the prudential regulation work in 2016 before moving into the regulation of insurance intermediaries by 2017 or early 2018.
On 3 August 2015, we conducted a briefing for Members entitled “From Bill to Law – what you should know about the Insurance Companies (Amendment) Ordinance?”. More than 220 representatives from 81 Member Companies attended the event and the overall feedback was good (Circular Ref: SL/ec/15-026).
Going forward, we will work with the Insurance Authority (IA) on the transitional arrangements on issues like the proper migration of Insurance Agents Registration Board to the new IIA and the drafting of the relevant market conduct rules and guidelines under the new legislative framework.
Insurance Fraud
Commissioner of Insurance
As you are probably aware, Mr John Leung will take over from Ms Annie Choi as Commissioner of Insurance on 19 August 2015. On behalf of the HKFI, I would like to extend a warm welcome to I want to take this opportunity to thank Ms Choi for her remarkable contribution to the insurance industry during the past six years and wish her all the best in her new position as Commissioner of Innovation and Technology.
I nsurance fraud has been an issue of concern to the industry. We need to step up our industry’s fraud detection and prevention capacity to protect honest consumers. Thanks to the support of Member Companies,
Mr Leung and we look forward to maintaining our close working relationship with the IA under his leadership.
the Governing Committee has decided to proceed with the setting up of a claims data base and commission a consultant to provide the necessary legal and related support for this project.
Coincidentally, the HK Police Force will broadcast an episode in its TV programme the Police Magazine on bogus motor insurance cover note. Chairman of Task Force on Prevention of Insurance Fraud & Claims Database Mr Allan Yu will appear in the programme and remind people not to buy insurance from anyone except properly registered intermediaries.
Like us on Facebook!
T he HKFI has just launched its first ever fan page on Facebook!
By way of short articles, videos, comic strips, interactive games, etc, our fan page "HKFI Smart Union ( 保聯同學會 )" will provide interesting news and practical tips relating to the HKFI and the industry. It will also serve as an interactive platform to hear the views from the community. All in all, we hope to strengthen engagement with the public as well as industry practitioners through this fan page.
We will roll out a series of promotional campaigns to attract our targetted fans, and the first online celebrity appearing at our fan page is popular illustrator 謝曬皮 . With her massive fans network, we hope to reach out to the youngsters to coincide with the theme of our publicity programme this year of promoting insurance as a career of choice. More campaigns will be launched in the coming months to reach out to different segments of the public.
Action now, "Like" us on Facebook and share our posts!
HKFI Survey
We are most encouraged by the positive findings of the 2015 Members’ Survey. 51 Member Companies responded to the survey and indicated that they supported the work we did and appreciated the service we provide.
We have also got a clear indication from Members that they fully support the proposed future initiatives under the 5-year plan of Vision 2028, i.e. developing a claims database to tackle insurance fraud, building HKFI as an insurance think-tank; promoting insurance education and professional training and organising quality industry conferences and awards.
Mission Statement 2015
Based on the survey results and feedback from Members, the Governing Committee is in the process of revising the HKFI Mission Statement to better reflect the vision, functions and priorities of the HKFI in the post-IIA era. We are now seeking Members’ views on the revised version (Circular Ref: Mv104/05).
Young Insurance Executive Development (YIE) Programme
T he July cohort of the YIE Programme started on 3 July 2015. An informal gathering was held on that day for student-trainees to meet HKFI representatives and the VTC faculty.
Recruitment for the November cohort is now underway. We have arranged insurance professionals to speak at Metro Radio’s programme and share with the audience their career experience. We have also held the first roadshow and career talk at Domain, a popular shopping mall in East Kowloon.
More events will be held in the future at universities and tertiary institutes to promote the YIE and attract new blood to our industry.
Public Consultation for the Enactment of Apology Legislation
On 24 July 2015, Mr Iu Ting-kwok, Member of Working Group on Apology Legislation, together with officials from the Department of Justice (DoJ) conducted a briefing on this important subject for Members.
Based on Members’ comments and input, the two Legal Working Groups (LWG) under the General Insurance Council (GIC) and Life Insurance Council (LIC) have submitted an industry response to the DoJ. In general, we support the idea of implementing an apology legislation in Hong Kong to facilitate the early resolution of disputes including those related to insurance claims. Given the fundamental change, however, we have requested a further round of consultation so that we can review details of the draft legislation as and when it is ready (Circular Ref: Mv078/15).
Contract (Rights of Third Parties) Ordinance
Incidentally, the two LWGs have also reviewed the above Ordinance which will come into effect on 1 January 2016. As a result, we have provided some examples of exclusion clause for Members’ reference (Circulars Mv094/15 and Mv096/15).
Visitors
from Singapore's Ministry of Manpower (MOM)
O n 16 July 2015, we received an official delegation from MOM led by their Deputy Secretary (Development) Mr Kok Ping Soon.
They expressed interest in knowing more about the Employees’ Compensation (EC) system in Hong Kong, particularly the Return-To-Work ("RTW") programme and the EC Insurance levy system. Our visitors highly commended the HKFI on its initiative to work with the Chinese University of Hong Kong in developing the Multidisciplinary Orthopaedics Rehabilitation Empowerment (MORE) Program. They found this a
very useful reference for developing similar programmes in Singapore.
Membership News
Change of Authorised Representative
● Bupa (Asia) Limited (General Member) - Ms Ann Coughlan
GN 16 Guidance Note On Underwriting Long Term Insurance Business (Other Than Class C Business)
F urther to the two industry briefings organised by the LIC earlier this year, the IA has issued the GN16 on 30 July 2015.
Thanks to the hard work of the Task Force on NonLinked Business led by Mr Lennard Yong, the IA has agreed to extend the implementation date of new policies of current products for nine months from 1 April 2016 to 1 January 2017. The IA has also taken into account a number of industry suggestions. For example, on the fulfilment ratio of non-guaranteed dividend/bonuses against the illustrated amount at the point of sale, insurers will only be required to provide such data in the past 5 years only (Circular Ref: Mv086/15).
GN 16 is the result of ongoing discussion with the IA since October 2014. We are pleased to see the satisfactory outcome and IA’s readiness to listen to the views of the industry and make appropriate adjustment on the implementation arrangement.
Summer Greetings
I n view of the summer holiday, the next issue of the Monthly Brief will be published in September 2015. Wishing you all a blissful and refreshing summer break!
● QBE Hongkong & Shanghai Insurance Limited (General Member) - Mr Mark Walker
● Sompo Japan Nipponkoa Reinsurance Company Limited (General Member) - Mr Kozo Nakamura
● Standard Life (Asia) Limited (Life Member) - Mr David Smith
● Tugu Insurance Company Limited (General Member) - Mr Leon Leung
HKFI Membership
As at 10 August 2015, the HKFI has 89 General Insurance Members and 45 Life Insurance Members.
Mike Lee HKFI Chairman