Controversial investment-linked assurance schemes poised to make a comeback
Two leading banks are said to be reviewing policies on sale of the insurance-linked schemes
A controversial class of investment products may soon become widely available again after most banks in Hong Kong stopped selling them when tough restrictions on their sale were introduced this year.
Two of the city's Big Four banks are said to be reviewing their policies on the sale of investment-linked assurance schemes (ILAS), with a view to promoting them more actively in one case and resuming their sale in the other.
HSBC is reviewing its sales of ILAS, which it is now selling only to customers who have bought the products before, two people familiar with the situation said.
The bank would like to expand the target market next year to all customers who requested such products, they said.
"The ILAS products are still on HSBC's shelf, but the staff are not promoting them actively to customers," a senior executive at a rival bank said.
A senior HSBC executive said: "The bank has enhanced its disclosures to meet the new requirements, hoping to enlarge the sales target group." The executive, who declined to be named, noted that a final decision had not been made.
Standard Chartered, which stopped offering ILAS products at the end of June, was reviewing its ban and studying the possibility of resuming sales of the products next year, market watchers said.
