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ExclusiveHong Kong to reappoint insurance regulator as industry braces for tough period: sources
Insurance Authority CEO Clement Cheung will be reappointed on Friday to help industry navigate Beijing’s tax clampdown, sources said
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Hong Kong’s government is set to reappoint Clement Cheung Wan-ching as CEO of the Insurance Authority for another three-year term on Friday, according to two sources with knowledge of the matter.
The move is aimed at ensuring continuity and stability in the city’s insurance sector, as the industry faces unprecedented headwinds amid Beijing’s offshore tax clampdown, one source told the South China Morning Post.
Cheung, who has led the insurance regulator since 2018, is due to complete his current three-year term on Friday.
Another source said the 64-year-old was being reappointed due to his achievements over the past few years. Cheung has overseen strong growth in Hong Kong’s insurance sector, with life insurance sales breaking records as mainlanders and wealthy families across Asia buy policies to protect their wealth and transfer assets to the next generation.
But Cheung will begin his new term amid a challenging period for the industry, as Beijing steps up controls on mainland families’ use of cross-border wealth and insurance products. Some local authorities began levying a 20 per cent tax on gains from offshore insurance policies as part of that push earlier this month.
Life insurance sales in Hong Kong soared 51 per cent in the first quarter to another record high, with the industry writing HK$141.1 billion (US$18 billion) in new life policies in the three months under review, Insurance Authority data showed.
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