Jurisdiction: Hong Kong

The Chinese government launched the Shanghai Free Trade Zone (FTZ) on 29 September 2013 and said that the insurance sector would play an important role in the FTZ. 

Taiwan is the second largest market in the Asia-Pacific region after Japan in terms of insurance density. However, it was reported by Asia Insurance Review on 28 August 2013 that the combination of persisting low interest rates, sluggish business growth, weak underlying profitability and increasing competition have driven Taiwanese life insurers to invest more in high risk assets, such as real estate, securities with higher potential profit margin and overseas assets. 

The China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC) has issued a notice on its website on 29 September 2013. The notice sets out the eight areas in which the CIRC will provide support to the insurance sector in the newly launched Shanghai Free Trade Zone (FTZ). 

Peter Humphrey along with his American wife, Yu Yingzeng, has been held in connection with an alleged £320million bribery scandal at drugs giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK). 

The China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC) has issued on its website a set of rules for online insurers (Online Rules) on 3 September 2013. 

In 2002, Shanghai implemented the medical liability insurance system. Since then, more than 400 hospitals in Shanghai have participated in the system and 13,463 claims have been filed and recorded in the first 10 years following implementation. Among these claims, some of them have been successfully resolved, while many of the claims have not been dealt with satisfactorily. 

A survey was carried out by Ping An Annuity Insurance Company of China on the retirement pension scheme market recently. 

The Office of the Commissioner of Insurance (OCI) released on 30 August 2013 the provisional statistics of the Hong Kong insurance industry for the first half of 2013. 

On 26 June 2013, the Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau (FSTB) published the Consultation Conclusions of Key Legislative Proposals (Proposals) on Establishment of an Independent Insurance Authority (IIA) (Consultation Conclusions) after a 3-month public consultation completed in January 2013.