Life insurance sales soared to a record last year in Hong Kong, as local residents and mainland Chinese visitors bought policies for protection, wealth management and estate planning, capping a second bumper year for the industry amid turbulent markets.
Mainland Chinese tourists last year spent HK$62.8 billion on life and medical policies, up 6.5 per cent from the HK$59 billion spent in 2023. Policy sales to mainlanders ranged between HK$43 billion and HK$51 billion from 2017 to 2019. Mainlanders accounted for 28.6 per cent of the total insurance sales during the period, the data showed.
Mainlanders have been buying Hong Kong insurance policies as a hedge against the yuan’s depreciation, helping to spur insurance sales to the highest level since the authority started operation in 2017.
HSBC Life maintained its top ranking three years in a row, selling HK$36.8 billion worth of new policies last year, which gave it a market share of 16.8 per cent.
“Our high-net-worth business remains a cornerstone of our success, and we see a continuous growing demand from high-net-worth customers using insurance for wealth management and estate planning,” said Daisy Tsang, the Hong Kong and Macau CEO at HSBC Life. “We remain committed to supporting our customers to achieve their life goals and protect their loved ones through the benefits of insurance, while leveraging Hong Kong’s position as a global insurance hub to also provide world-class protection to customers across the globe.”
