Greater Bay Area: Hong Kong wants to add insurance products to ‘Connect’ menu to deepen cross-border links
- Move will be assessed after current efforts to establish after-sales service centres to help residents in Greater Bay Area, lawmaker says
- The city’s insurance industry is keen to have an ‘insurance connect’ of its own to enable companies to cross-sell policies on both sides of the border
It could be integrated as part of the Wealth Management Connect scheme launched in 2021, or as a stand-alone Insurance Connect scheme to allow cross-border sale of policies within the 11 cities covering the bay area, he said at the monthly Legislative Council financial affairs panel meeting on Monday. No decision has been made.
“We are exploring the two possibilities to see which options would be more advantageous,” he said. The decision would depend on regulatory discussion with mainland Chinese regulators, including on the timeline, the lawmaker added.
The city’s government is keen to push ahead with the long-awaited idea of forming those service centres, such as in Nansha and Qianhai, due to strong demand from insurers, Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu said in his policy address in October. They could support residents in the nine mainland Chinese cities within the bay area.
