Life insurance sales rose to a record in Hong Kong last year, boosted by purchases from local buyers, while business from the Middle East, Southeast Asia and mainland China increased.
Sales rose 15.7 percent in the first nine months of 2024 to HK$169.6 billion (US$21.7 billion), from HK$146.5 billion in the same period in 2023, according to the Insurance Authority (IA). Mainland buyers used coverage of Hong Kong as a hedge against the yuan’s decline against the US dollar, helping to push sales in the city to the highest level since the establishment of the IA in 2016.
“People from all over the world, including Indonesia, the Philippines and Singapore, are buying life policies in Hong Kong,” IA’s managing director of long-term business Marty Lui said during a media briefing. “An increasing number of visitors from the Middle East are buying shelves in Hong Kong.”
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The body will collect more data on the buying habits and policy types of these visitors to help formulate measures to promote sales as well as protect their interests, he said.
(L-R) Ocean Chiu, Assistant Director, General Business, Insurance Agency, and Marty Lui, Executive Director, Long Term Business, Insurance Agency, during a briefing at the Wong Chuk Hang office on January 17, 2025. Photo: Enoch Yiu. alt=(LR) Ocean Chiu, Assistant Director, General Business, Insurance Agency, and Marty Lui, Executive Director, Long Term Business, Insurance Agency, during a briefing at the Wong Chuk Hang office on January 17, 2025. Photo: Enoch Yiu.>
“If the data shows that more visitors from the Middle East are shopping, we will have to issue educational materials in Arabic to raise awareness among shoppers and protect them,” Lui said. The IA will propose measures to prevent insurers from overestimating potential dividend payouts from their policies and review the commission shared by sales agents, he added.
Sales to mainland visitors fell 0.4 percent to HK$46.6 billion in the nine-month period, compared with a year earlier. Land insurance buyers accounted for 27.6 percent of total life and medical insurance sales during that period, the data show.
“Over the past nine months, customers from 50 different markets have purchased policies from us, underscoring their confidence in our international brand, credit rating and quality products,” said Daisy Tsang, managing director of Hong Kong and Macau at HSBC Life.
Mainland visitors who buy Hong Kong insurance papers will be reclassified as “travelers” this year to distinguish them from buyers who are also recent mainland immigrants, Lui said. The reporting frequency will be changed to semi-annual reports from the current quarterly submission, he said.
Mainlanders like to buy insurance in Hong Kong because policies are denominated in either the Hong Kong dollar or the U.S. currency, which helps protect them from the yuan’s 16 percent fall in value against the dollar over the past three years.
A group of Muslim tourists visit the Avenue of Stars in Tsim Sha Tsui on December 30, 2024. Photo: Jelly Tse alt=A group of Muslim tourists visit the Avenue of Stars in Tsim Sha Tsui on December 30, 2024. Photo: Jelly Tse >
HSBC Life’s business growth was driven mostly by increased sales to so-called high-net-worth individuals and a new multi-currency product, Tsang said.
“Hong Kong is already the world’s largest life insurance market,” Lui said. “With a population of just 7.5 million people, we need to attract overseas customers to come and buy policies here as a way forward to promote the city as an international insurance hub.”
In the first nine months of last year, 32.6 million tourists visited Hong Kong, which is 40 percent more than a year earlier, according to data published by the Hong Kong Tourist Board. Visitors from the mainland accounted for 78 percent of visitors during this period.
“Hong Kong’s insurance industry momentum strengthened in the third quarter, driven by sustained economic recovery, increased cross-border travel and ongoing government initiatives to boost economic vitality,” said Patrick Graham, CEO of Manulife Hong Kong and Macau. “The current interest rate environment drove increased customer demand for our innovative savings products during the quarter.”
The influx of visitors helped Manulife achieve double-digit percentage increases in new business value during the company’s third quarter, as well as increase quarterly and annual increases across all of its business segments, Graham said.
“We remain optimistic about continued industry growth over the medium term, supported by increasing consumer awareness of health and safety needs, strong demand drivers and a positive business environment,” he said.
Gross general insurance sales in the first nine months of this year were HK$75 billion, driven mainly by accident and health insurance business, which includes medical and travel insurance.
