Spooked by a falling yuan, yield-seeking mainland Chinese scramble to buy insurance policies in Hong Kong
- Sales of insurance policies to mainland Chinese visitors hit HK$46.8 billion (US$6 billion) in the nine months to September, compared with HK$1 billion a year ago
- Manulife and Prudential are upbeat on policy sales in the fourth quarter amid rising demand from mainland Chinese visitors
Life insurance sales in Hong Kong to mainland Chinese visitors surged 46-fold in the first nine months of this year as they tucked into an array of insurance products seeking higher returns and as a hedge against a weakening yuan, according to data released by the Insurance Authority on Thursday.
Sales of policies to mainlanders hit HK$46.8 billion (US$6 billion) from January to September, compared with HK$1 billion a year earlier, representing 32 per cent of the total in Hong Kong during the period.
Sales also exceeded the HK$36 billion worth of life and medical policies bought by mainland Chinese visitors before the Covid-19 pandemic in same period of 2019, when they accounted for 25.8 per cent of total sales.
On a quarterly basis, sales from July to September to mainlanders stood at HK$15 billion, 33 per cent lower than the HK$22.28 billion in the second quarter but 56 per cent higher than the HK$9.6 billion in the first quarter.
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Overall new life insurance sales rose 30.6 per cent in the first nine months to HK$146.5 billion, from HK$112.2 billion a year earlier. This was also 4.8 per cent higher than the sales of HK$139.8 billion in the first nine months of 2019.
