Monthly Brief 2012/12 EN

December 2012 Issue No. 196

2012 Extraordinary General Meeting & Christmas Cocktail Party As approved at the Extraordinary General Meeting held on 14 December 2012, membership subscription fees next year will remain unchanged. My sincere thanks to all of you for joining us at this year’s Christmas cocktail party.

Independence of the Insurance Authority (IIA) On 17 December 2012, the HKFI and Hong Kong Insurance Law Association (HILA) jointly organized an interactive Focus Group Discussion. Close to 80 participants from direct insurers, reinsurers, associations of insurance intermediaries and the legal profession had fruitful discussions on various important issues related to the establishment of the IIA. In addition to discussing the macro issues on the role and functions of IIA, composition of the IIA Board, experiences of regulatory change in other countries, we also covered a range of micro issues on intermediaries, licensing and regulated activities; banassurance and the envisaged overlap of the regulatory roles of IIA and Hong Kong Monetary Authority; regulation of Responsible Officers; investigation, inspection, penalties, misconduct; grandfathering and transitional provisions (Circular Ref: SL/sl/12-050).

We are very pleased with the overwhelming and positive response from the participants. The input from this discussion forum will form an important part of our submission to the Administration with a view to ensuring the future regulatory framework will be practical, protect consumers and help grow our industry.

Members are encouraged to review the various legislative proposals and forward your views to the secretariat for consolidation (Circular Ref: Mv118/12).

Results of the GIC By-election Let's welcome Mr Marc Breuil of Chartis Insurance Hong Kong Ltd, who was duly elected to fill the casual vacancy of the General Insurance Council (GIC). As the authorized representative of AXA General Insurance Hong Kong Limited, I was also elected to fill another casual vacancy of the GIC, which then elected me back to the Governing Committee. On 14 December 2012, the Governing Committee appointed me as Chairman of the HKFI for the remaining term 2012/2013.

May I take the opportunity to thank you for your support.

Guidance Note on Outsourcing (GN)

The above GN is coming into effect on 1 January 2013. To facilitate Members' compliance with the new rules and regulations therein, the relevant Task Force has organized a seminar on 19 December 2012, which attracted a full house. Members are reminded to observe the GN accordingly when outsourcing their business activities to other parties.

Cross-strait Conference on Prevention of Insurance Fraud

The conference was held in Taipei on 10 and 11 December 2012 with participation of more than 150 practitioners from the Greater China Region. Mr Allan Yu, Chairman of the Task Force on Insurance Scam, addressed the conference and provided the audience with an update on our on-going battle against insurance fraud.

We also learnt from our counterparts in the Mainland and Taiwan their latest endeavours in tackling such criminal acts, in particular their cross-border anti-fraud mechanism which facilitates document verification. We will work with the Insurance Authority on this front and hope to see a similar system established in Hong Kong.

Mission Well Community Project

The Junior Financial Secretaries (JFS) have made very constructive use of their Christmas break. On 15 December 2012, they visited some singleton elders in the Shum Shui Po district and shared with them the seasons' warmth and joy.

On 21 December, the team was received by the Hon John Tsang, Financial Secretary of the HKSAR. Accompanying them were HKFI Deputy Chairman Mr Thomas Lee, GIC Chairman Mr Jimmy Poon and Life Insurance Council Chairman Mr Roger Steel. The JFS expressed their views on the 2013/2014 budget. They conveyed their concerns and suggested solutions to address the problems related to the urban planning & housing policy, education, caring for the underprivileged and healthcare. For details of the JFS’ submission in Chinese, please visit http://missionwell.bgca.org. hk/0702/files/file/YoungFSBudget2013.pdf.

On 22 December, the Hon K P Chan met the JFS and shared with them candidly his experience in the Legislative Council and his personal views on a number of topical social and political issues.

Qualification Framework (QF) for the Insurance Industry On 11 December 2012, the Insurance Industry Training Advisory Committee organized a seminar to encourage more education and training service providers offering insurance related learning programmes to have their programmes quality assured and recognized under QF. HKFI Chief Executive Mr Peter Tam made a presentation that afternoon.

Season’s Greetings At this festive time, may I wish you and your family a very Merry Christmas and the most Joyous 2013!

Agnes Choi HKFI Chairman

MEMBERSHIP NEWS Change of Authorized Representative HSBC Insurance (Asia) Limited - Mr Paul Menzies Minan Property And Casualty Insurance Company Limited, Hong Kong Branch - Mr Lee Wai Kun HKFI Membership As at 27 December 2012, the HKFI has 86 General Insurance Members and 43 Life Insurance Members.