The insurance regulator plans to redefine mainland visitors, excluding high-skilled talent and those residing overseas, to prevent the loss of high-end clients

Mainland visitors are an important source of customers for the Hong Kong insurance industry. To more accurately grasp relevant data, the Insurance Authority plans to redefine what constitutes a mainland visitor. The Executive Director (Long-term Business) of the Authority, Lu Yuguo, stated that the current proposal is to define mainland visitors as individuals holding a Chinese passport who are permanent residents of the mainland, differing from the old definition which only considered the Chinese passport. Therefore, those coming to Hong Kong through talent schemes such as the High Talent Pass and mainland residents living abroad will no longer be classified as mainland visitors. The Insurance Authority will conduct a formal consultation on this in the second quarter, aiming to issue relevant definitions and regulatory requirements within this year and implement the new definition. Lu Yuguo mentioned that there have been one or two rounds of informal consultations regarding the redefinition of mainland visitors. The general direction from the industry is that mainland residents coming to Hong Kong to live through talent schemes such as the High Talent Pass will no longer be considered mainland visitors simply because they hold a Chinese passport and will be classified as local customers; at the same time, mainland residents who are permanent residents abroad and hold a Chinese passport will also no longer be defined as mainland visitors. The Chief Executive of the Insurance Authority, Zhang Yunzhen, stated that under the new definition, it will facilitate mainland residents living abroad, such as in Canada, to purchase Hong Kong insurance policies, as they will not be required to personally fly to Hong Kong to sign contracts according to the old definition. This is expected to help attract more capital inflow into Hong Kong. In fact, Hong Kong has already lost many high-end customers due to the old definition. Lu Yuguo added that under the new definition, they can sign contracts overseas but must prove that they are not permanent residents of the mainland, and what constitutes "permanent residence" will also be within the scope of the formal consultation. In 2004, the Insurance Commission (the predecessor of the Insurance Authority) issued guidelines to prevent the emergence of underground policies and illegal cross-border sales, stipulating that mainland visitors must come to Hong Kong in person to sign contracts when purchasing Hong Kong insurance. Mainland visitors are an important source of customers for the local life insurance market. However, due to the ongoing work to redefine mainland visitors, the Insurance Authority has not published data on mainland customers purchasing insurance policies in Hong Kong since last year. Zhang Yunzhen pointed out that in the first three quarters of last year, the overall new life insurance premium increased by 55.9% year-on-year, but according to the old definition, the share of new policy premiums from mainland visitors dropped from 32.6% in 2023 to below 30% in nearly two years, indicating that many outsiders, including non-local Hong Kong residents, may be purchasing insurance in Hong Kong. Therefore, there is a need to collect and analyze this data. Lu added that the Insurance Authority is planning to expand into the Southeast Asian and Middle Eastern markets and will take this opportunity to collect data on mainland visitors living in the Greater Bay Area and those outside the Greater Bay Area for promotional purposes. New regulations expected to be implemented within the year Regarding the progress of launching a platform for comparing the realization rates of participating policies, Lu indicated that the non-guaranteed return realization rates currently listed by insurance companies are overly detailed, making it difficult for the public to understand. Therefore, he hopes to introduce a comprehensive realization rate for all non-guaranteed returns to facilitate public comparison, with the goal of implementing relevant regulations within the year and officially launching the platform next year