HKFI New Member
Our warmest welcome to Compañía Española de Seguros y Reaseguros de Crédito y Caución S.A. for joining HKFI as our General Insurance Member!
Policyholders’ Protection Funds (PPF)
After rounds of discussion and exchange of correspondence with the Office of the Commissioner of Insurance (OCI), we have resolved a number of issues on PPF. That said, there remain two key areas of major concerns, i.e. the proposed level of levy cap for PPF Life Scheme and the unknown risk accumulation due to the proposed offer of PPF world-wide cover for personal insurance. Given the gravity of these matters, we engaged an external counsel to prepare a submission detailing our concerns and suggested ways forward. The submission was forwarded to the Commissioner of Insurance in early July for consideration.
In our submission, we also addressed some of the issues raised earlier:
Type of Policy Protected under PPF Non-life Scheme
Medical Claims Statistics
T he Medical Insurance Association conducted a media conference on 21 July 2016 to release the 2014 set of medical claims statistics and provided an update on some significant trends:
● Over 4 million people in Hong Kong are currently covered by individual and group medical insurance with more than 200,000 additional members in 2015;
● Medical cost inflation remained substantial. Compared with 2013, the average claim cost for inpatient treatment increased by about 6 to 7% while day case surgeries were up by 18%
● There is a constant up-trend of medical fees in the past few years due to increasing utilization and medical progress but the average range of insurance premium growth during the same period has remained stable at 4 to 5.2%;
● Colonoscopy and gastroscopy remained the key cost drivers, representing almost half of the total counts of claim.
We shall continue our discussion with the OCI to try to work out a PPF framework which is legally sound and practically sustainable.
Important Facts Statement for Mainland Policyholders (IFS-MP) issued by the OCI
E arly this month the OCI issued the IFS-MP which incorporated most of the comments from the Life Insurance Council (LIC) and Life Insurance Members (LIMs).
From 1 September 2016 onwards, all Mainlanders taking out life insurance policies in Hong Kong will be required to complete the IFS-MP to ensure they have a good understanding of the proper sales process and the relevant risks involved. For details, please refer to the OCI’s website at: http://www.oci.gov.hk/download/ifs-mp. pdf.
There are also two important messages to the public: Policyholders should regularly review the benefits coverage of their insurance policies to ensure it is sufficient to meet the rising expenses due to medical inflation.
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Procedures done in clinics and day surgery facilities help contain medical fees as patients normally only need to pay about 1/3 of the fees for the same procedure carried out in a General Ward.
Issue No.236 Jul / Aug 2016
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SMEs Refund of Premium Continuity of Cover Exclusion of credit insurance Levy
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Charges
Overage Vessels Agreement
F ollowing the coming into force of the Competition Ordinance, Marine Insurance Association (MIA) has reviewed the industry’s Overage Vessels Agreement introduced back in 1992. In the light of legal advice, MIA has resolved to abolish the Agreement. As a result, the Special List of Overage Vessels no longer applies and from now on, the setting of premium rates for such vessels is left to individual insurers.
In our Annual Report published lately, we highlighted our Mission Statement and the Vision 2028 and its 5-year Plan. Check out the details via the e-version at: http://www.hkfi.org.hk/#!/ resources-centre/ar-2015.
O
ur Facebook Fan Page “HKFI Smart Union ( was launched a year ago on 29 July 2015. After a year of hard work and with very limited resources, we have come to build a fans community which is growing steadily. Educational feeds were posted in various formats – timely messages on topical issues with illustrations, videos on various types of insurance, comic strips, footage on personal sharing, blogs and vlogs by key opinion leaders, etc. And we are proud to see the impressive results we have achieved so far – an accumulative post reach of 1,140,000 and over 310,000 engagements.
Going forward and leveraging on our expertise in insurance, we will continue to provide timely and relevant educational feeds. Also, we will try to bring out more of the human side of our industry by inviting those who have firsthand experience in insurance to appear in our Fanpage and share their thoughts about insurance. So if you have or happen to come across any touching stories which you want to share with our fans, please contact the HKFI Secretariat at communications@hkfi.org.hk. We welcome any stories whether they are told from the practitioners’ or policyholders’ perspective.
Be our Fan on Facebook! And if you have not yet liked us on Facebook, please do it now at https://www.facebook. com/HKFI.SmartUnion/. Thank you!
Membership News
New Membership
Visitors
O
n 22 July 2016, we received a delegation of five from the Shenzhen Insurance Consumers’ Right Service Centre and briefed them on the complaints handling procedures of the Insurance Claims Complaints Bureau (ICCB) and how it effectively adjudicates claims related complaints through an independent panel. They expressed their wish to adopt such a successful model in Shenzhen and build it as the preferred dispute resolution framework for other insurance markets in the Mainland.
Summer Greetings
T he next issue of the Monthly Brief will be published in September 2016. Wishing you all a relaxing and refreshing summer break!
Compañía Española de Seguros y Reaseguros de Crédito y Caución S.A. (General Member)
Change of Company Name
● Ageas Insurance Company (Asia) Limited to (Life Member) to FTLife Insurance Company Limited
● Sompo Japan Nipponkoa Insurance (Hong Kong) Company Limited (General Member) to Sompo Insurance (Hong Kong) Company Limited
Change of Authorised Representative
● Chong Hing Insurance Company Limited (General Member) - Mr Danny Ma
● Euler Hermes (General Member) - Mr Holger Schaefer
● QBE General Insurance (Hong Kong) Limited (General Member) - Ms Margaret Wong
● Transamerica Life (Bermuda) Ltd. (Life Member) - Mr Marc Lieberman
HKFI Membership
As at 29 July 2016, the HKFI has 90 General Insurance Members and 49 Life Insurance Members.
Ronnie Ng HKFI Chairman
HKFI Annual Report
2015/2016
