2021/2022 Council Election and AGM
The Life Insurance Council (LIC) is conducting an election for the next term. Please send in your votes to our Honorary Auditor KPMG by 14 April (Cirular Ref: Mv024/21). The elected councillors will assume office when the new term starts on 30 April after the AGM is held.
Amendment of Articles of Association (AoA)
COVID-19 has disrupted the occurrence of face-to-face general meetings. To allow more flexibility in holding future meetings, we are amending the AoA to enable the following remote functions:
a) executing and processing board and shareholders’ resolutions in electronic forms;
b) allowing e-proxy for shareholders’ meetings; and
c) adopting hybrid meeting for board and shareholders’ meetings.
The proposed amendment to the AoA has been approved by the Companies Registry and will be considered and endorsed at the AGM scheduled for 30 April.
Progress on Early Adoption of the Risk-Based Capital (RBC) Framework
The Task Force held its second meeting on 15 March and reviewed the comments regarding the items we wish to tackle, the proposed timetable for the next month or so, and how the Early Adoption on RBC should be codified. The Task Force will meet with the Policy & Development and Long Term Business Divisions of the Insurance Authority (IA) in April to communicate the progress and obtain IA’s views.
The Focus on InsurTech for the Industry
Subsequent to the joint-survey conducted by HKFI and IA, we are launching a series of knowledge-based webinars on the key areas of concern identified by the survey. Panel speakers on Application Programming Interface (API), e-KnowYour-Customer (e-KYC), Regulatory Technology (RegTech), and Cybersecurity will be invited to share use cases at the webinars, which are scheduled to be rolled out starting from April.
Furthermore, the InsurTech Task Forces (ITTF) under both GIC and LIC have agreed to establish new Sub-Committees (SubCom) under the ITTF to deep-dive on solutions related to RegTech and e-KYC. We have touched base with IA on these SubComs and will initiate the nomination process in the coming weeks. We look forward to our Members’ support on both initiatives. Stay tuned!
Updates on Protection-Linked Plan (PLP)
On 12 March and 16 March, we met virtually with IA and obtained updates on the progress of PLP amongst their fellow regulators. To facilitate the consideration of the regulators, the dedicated Task Force has collected further information on the two key areas of concern, namely the Cost of Insurance (CoI) and Platform Fund Fees, and came up with a viable proposal.
Given the time restraints and to expedite the process, the Task Force has been divided into two sub-working groups to have more focused discussion on the subjects. Much work is to be done. We are looking at a quartet meeting with the regulators in the near future. We will keep you posted with the progress.
Media Conference on Insurance Claims Statistics
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Insurance Claims Complaints Panel (ICCP) under the Insurance Complaints Bureau held a live-streaming media conference on 30 March to announce the claims complaints statistics with a review of some cases for the year 2020.
A special vote of thanks to Chairman of the ICCP Mr Michael Tsui and his fellow panel members for their efforts over the years. To revisit the media conference, please click here.
Insurance Coverage for Transport Sector
The Legislative Council has established a Joint Subcommittee on Issues Relating to Insurance Coverage for the Transport Sector to study and follow up on the problems encountered by the transport sector in procuring insurance, and to make recommendations to tackle such problems where appropriate. The Accident Insurance Association has been invited to join the second meeting in April.
We stand ready to work with the lawmakers and others stakeholders on the subject and will share our observations on the prevailing practices, suggestions to improve the current situation and ways to enhance collaborations among different stakeholders in the entire ecosystem.
HKFI Elite Talent Development Pilot Program
In order to ensure the wealth of knowledge of our insurance veterans can be retained in our industry and their business wisdom and profound experience can be passed down to the younger generation, the HKFI is launching an industry mentorship program to help nurture the talents for the sustainable development of our industry.
Unlike the previous mentorship programs, the Elite Program will focus on grooming the high potential individuals in our industry and bringing them to the next level. We have already enlisted a pool of heavy weight industry figures as our mentors. Members are welcome to nominate your eligible staff members to join this pilot program. For details, please refer to the circular (Circular Ref: Mv019/21).
Webinar on Engineering Insurance
On 25 March, the Construction Sub-committee under Fire Insurance Association organized a webinar named ‘Engineering Insurance – a Journey through Challenges, Changes and Opportunities’. The participants found it informative and learnt the latest updates, current trends and developments of the construction insurance industry.
Membership News
Change of Authorized Representative
● Hannover Ruck SE (Life Member) – Ms Marian Leung
● Lloyd’s (General Member) – Mr Joshua Lynch
Our Training Unit continues offering timely curriculums to meet different training needs. The latest on our list is the CPD Webinar series on IA’s Direct Licensing Regime. We have invited MinterEllison LLP to cover, in English and in Cantonese, the first topic on Internal Investigation in the Context of Regulatory Process. You are welcome to contact our Training Unit by email at training@hkfi.org.hk for details of enrolment (Circular Ref: Mv018/21).
Following the success of “the CNY Lucky Bag” campaign during the Chinese New Year, we are launching another exclusive special package for staff / insurance agents of Member Companies from now to 30 April. Participants signing up for the package are able to take the 1.5 IA-CPD-hours e-course on ‘Ethics or Regulations’ free of charge. Click here to enroll in Selected Online Training courses for free!
Cancellation of HKFI Annual Reception 2021
Owingto the social distancing measures under COVID-19, the Annual Reception 2021 originally scheduled for April will be cancelled. We look forward to catching up with you in other corporate events when the pandemic situation improves!
● Sun Life Hong Kong Limited (Life Member) – Mr Clement Lam Ka Yin
HKFI Membership
As at 31 March 2021, the HKFI has 87 General Insurance Members and 52 Life Insurance Members.