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Enoch Yiu

Several Hong Kong insurance companies, including Prudential, Manulife and BOC Life, are racing into cross-sector alliances from artificial intelligence underwriting to healthcare tie-ups to strengthen capabilities and efficiency amid China’s tightened cross-border tax rules.
Prudential announced a partnership with Alibaba Cloud to launch an AI underwriter, designed to help financial consultants make preliminary decisions based on a client’s financial situation, medical record, occupation and residential profile.
Collaboration would be a trend, as insurance companies alone could not cope with the new technology, said Lawrence Lam, CEO of Prudential Hong Kong, in a media briefing on Wednesday.
“AI underwriting allows our financial consultants to identify client needs and deliver preliminary results within minutes instead of days,” he said.
Ethan Yuan Zhiming, vice-president of international business and regional general manager of Hong Kong and Macau at Alibaba Cloud, said the partnership combined Prudential’s insurance expertise with Alibaba Cloud’s AI capabilities to provide faster and better service.
Insurers which can best use AI technology to develop their businesses would be the winners
Lawrence Lam, Prudential Hong Kong
Alibaba Cloud in June also signed a strategic partnership with Manulife Hong Kong to develop AI solutions to enhance customer experience and operational effectiveness. Alibaba Cloud is the AI and cloud computing services unit of Alibaba, owner of the South China Morning Post.
On Monday, Manulife and AHA Healthcare Technology signed a memorandum of understanding to explore collaboration in health management and cross-border healthcare services and insurance technology.
The collaboration comes as more Hongkongers seek medical treatment at lower cost on the mainland.
AHA is the Hong Kong unit of Ant Health, which provides online hospital appointment booking and payment services for patients in mainland China.
“Working with partners that offer complementary strengths allows us to explore ways to create a simpler, more connected and customer-centred healthcare experience,” said Steve Finch, president and CEO of Manulife Asia.
“We believe cross-sector collaboration can play an important role in addressing the often fragmented cross-boundary healthcare experience, where customers have to make multiple inquiries and coordinate different stages of their healthcare journey.”
BOC Life last month teamed up with Deloitte Private to capture growing demand from high-net-worth individuals and wealthy families for succession planning and wealth advisory services.
“With high-net-worth clients seeking increasingly sophisticated asset management and legacy planning, cross-sector expert collaboration has become pivotal,” said Wilson Tang, CEO of BOC Life.
The partnerships come as Beijing enforces new tax rules on cross-border investment. Visitors from mainland China were leading buyers of Hong Kong life insurance products, accounting for about one-fourth of all sales, according to data from insurers.
In July, China brought income generated through offshore trusts under its ­personal income tax regime. Early last month, several major mainland cities, including Shanghai, began collecting a 20 per cent levy on gains from offshore insurance policies.
Prudential’s Lam said insurance companies needed partners to adopt AI.
“Insurers which can best use AI technology to develop their businesses would be the winners,” he said. “Establishing a partnership with a trusted technology partner would be the best way forward.”
Lam added that insurers should embrace AI to enhance their competitiveness, regardless of policy changes.
“Demand for mainlanders buying insurance policies in the past few months has been similar to that before the recent enforcement activities from mainland China drew wider attention,” he said. “Customers are seeking more information, but they still need to buy insurance in Hong Kong to get protection for their families.”


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Among cross-sector tie-ups, Prudential partners with Alibaba Cloud, Manulife works with Ant Health and BOC Life joins hands with Deloitte


Among cross-sector tie-ups, Prudential partners with Alibaba Cloud, Manulife works with Ant Health and BOC Life joins hands with Deloitte.


Insurers Prudential, Manulife seal tech alliances amid Beijing’s tightened tax rules

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Among cross-sector tie-ups, Prudential partners with Alibaba Cloud, Manulife works with Ant Health and BOC Life joins hands with Deloitte

Among cross-sector tie-ups, Prudential partners with Alibaba Cloud, Manulife works with Ant Health and BOC Life joins hands with Deloitte