Sep 2021
Issue No.292
New Member
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warm welcome to FuSure Reinsurance Company Limited for joining HKFI as a General Insurance Member.
GBA Development
ILAS & PLP Frameworks
n 10 September, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) promulgated the implementation details for the Cross-boundary Wealth Management Connect Pilot Scheme in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA).
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Our initial response was, albeit the fact that investmentlinked assurance schemes (ILAS) are approved by the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC), they are currently not included in the Wealth Management Connect initiative. When the Administration reviews the product scope, we recommend to include ILAS, in particular the newly developed Protection-linked Plan (PLP), in the Wealth Management Connect so as to introduce more diversity / risk management elements to the product offering.
ccording to the Insurance Authority's (IA) provisional statistics of Hong Kong insurance industry, the linked business for the first half of 2021 had increased by 192.2%. In anticipation of the enhanced product frameworks on ILAS & PLP, we are cautiously optimistic on the overall Class C business outlook for the rest of the year.
After our meeting in August with the three regulators, namely IA, HKMA, SFC, we conducted another round of industry consultation on the latest regulatory framework for PLP. We are thankful for the industry’s candid comments under the very tight timeline.
Green and ESG
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he Green and Sustainable Finance Cross-Agency Steering Group (Steering Group) established a Hong Kong Centre for Green and Sustainable Finance (GSF Centre) to engage different stakeholders. Under this GSF Centre, two Working Groups on Data and Capacity Building were formed and the HKFI nominated its Task Force on Green Insurance (TF) Chairman and Convenors of the TF’s four Subgroups as well as HKFI Chief Executive to join the working groups. Internally, the TF has made knowledge building the top priority for this year. We are thus organizing a webinar series with subject experts addressing different aspects of Green and ESG. The first one entitled “What Does ESG Mean in Insurance” will be held on 22 October with speaker from PwC sharing insights on regulatory landscape in ESG and climate risks, including the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) reporting framework (Circular Ref: Mv084/21). More informative sessions are in the pipeline.
Share Your Green Initiatives and Increase Your Brand Awareness In addition to the above, as more and more members implement green & ESG initiatives and innovate products with green elements, we hope to help share these efforts and innovation with stakeholders and the general public through our established social media platforms LinkedIn and Facebook. Share your stories with us now (Circular Ref: Mv081/21)!