Hong Kong

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The Office of the Commissioner of Insurance in Hong Kong (the OCI) reported that the Hong Kong insurance market posted a total underwriting profit of HK$2.2 billion (US283.5 million) for 2009. This represents a 46.6% increase over 2008. Overall, the sector enjoyed growth in general insurance (gross premiums increased by 5.7% to HK$28.6 billion and net premiums by 7.1% to HK$20.5 billion compared with the previous year, although the overall business growth was offset by a fall in marine business and goods-in-transit business), and non linked individual life and annuity lines (business rose 11.3% to HK$91.2 billion in 2009). 

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Read More Hong Kong: Majority of Business Lines Show Gains in 2009

Chan Kin-por, legislator representing the insurance sector in Hong Kong’s Legislative Council, recently told the South China Morning Post that many customers and insurance agents have urged him to seek a regulatory change to help the launch of  yuan-denominated policies as many people believe that the yuan will appreciate in value over the next few decades and yuan life insurance policies may bring policyholders 20% to 50% growth in terms of investment returns and valuation gains. 

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Read More HK: Rising Demand for Yuan Policies

The Supreme People’s Court of the People’s Republic of China recently issued a letter on 30 December 2009 to all Higher People’s Courts in mainland China confirming that ad hoc arbitral awards made in Hong Kong and those arbitral awards made in Hong Kong by the International Court of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce and other foreign arbitration institutions are enforceable in mainland China in accordance with the Arrangement concerning Mutual Enforcement of Arbitral Awards between mainland China and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region signed in 1999 (the “Arrangement”). 

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Read More HK: Enforceability of Hong Kong Arbitral Awards in Mainland China

The China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC) released on 25 December 2009 Draft Tentative Measures for the Administration of the Use of Insurance Funds (the “Draft Tentative Measures”) for public consultation. This public consultation closed on 4 January 2010. 

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Read More China: Draft Tentative Measures for the Administration of the Use of Insurance Funds

The China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC), the insurance industry regulator in the People’s Republic of China, issued a circular on 31 December 2009, permitting insurance institutions to invest in corporate debentures which are issued in the domestic inter-bank market provided that the corporate debentures satisfy the relevant applicable requirements and have a credit rating of AAA or a long-term credit rating equivalent to AAA assigned by domestic credit rating institutions. 

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Read More China: Insurance Institutions may Invest in Corporate Debentures