Life insurance sales soared to a record in Hong Kong last year, as customers rushed in from the Middle East, Southeast Asia and mainland China.
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Sales grew 15.7 per cent in the first nine months of 2024 to HK$169.7 billion (US$21.8 billion), from HK$146.5 billion in the same period in 2023, according to the Insurance Authority (IA). Mainland customers snapped up Hong Kong’s coverage as hedges against the yuan’s depreciating value against the US dollar, helping to spur the city’s sales to the highest level since the IA’s establishment in 2016.
“People from around the world, including Indonesia, the Philippines and Singapore, are buying life policies in Hong Kong,” the IA’s executive director of long-term business Marty Lui said during a media briefing. “An increasing number of Middle East visitors are buying policies in Hong Kong.”
The authority will collect more data on the buying habits and policy types of these visitors to help formulate measures to promote sales, as well as for protecting their interests, he said.
“If data shows more Middle East visitors buying, we will need to issue guidelines in Arabic to raise awareness among customers and protect them,” Lui said. The IA will propose measures to prevent insurers from overstating the potential dividend payouts from their policies, and review the commission shared with sales agents, he added.
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Sales to mainland visitors dipped by 0.4 per cent to HK$46.6 billion during the nine-month period, compared with a year earlier. Mainland insurance buyers made up 27.6 per cent of the total life and medical sales during the period, the data showed.