Year 2012 - Trade Prospect 行業展望

專題探討 Feature It is a great pleasure for me to congratulate the Hong Kong Chamber of Insurance Intermediaries for their role in maintaining and developing professional standards in the local insurance industry for another year in 2011. I also congratulate the Chamber for its choice of themes for this year, especially the focus on the forthcoming Independent Insurance Authority (IIA). Should we in the industry welcome the establishment of the IIA? I believe we should, subject to a few conditions. The idea of an IIA has quite strong public support. Public demand for better regulation of insurance – and indeed other financial services sectors – has been rising in recent years. We should accept this trend, and I am glad to say that the industry adopted a constructive attitude during the consultation process on the proposal for an IIA. The IIA offers some potential for greater efficiency. It will bring several different regulatory functions under one roof, and this will hopefully ensure consistency. In many ways, we in the industry will probably not notice too much difference when the IIA starts work. For example, the new organization will essentially pick up from the old Office of the Commissioner of Insurance. The key thing for intermediaries is whether the new structure will impose more bureaucracy, or be unnecessarily strict in its regulatory approach. Throughout the consultation period, the industry went to great lengths to encourage the government to strike a realistic balance between consumer protection and regulatory burdens. We fully support the protection of the public from bad practices; it is essential to the integrity and success of our industry that we always act with the utmost professionalism. But there is such a thing as over-regulation, when measures to protect consumers increase paperwork and ultimately costs, and everyone loses more than they gain. Much of this will come down to implementation and execution of regulations. If there are signs that the IIA is being unrealistically strict, or becoming too bureaucratic, the industry will need to respond. The HKCII will have a role to play here. I also encourage everyone to keep up to date with other developments in our industry, notably in areas like product knowledge and business practices. More than ever, high standards of training and development are essential to the success of insurance professionals. The HKCII will continue to make its vital contribution in this area, and I wish all my friends at the Chamber every success in the year ahead. 陳智思 Bernard Chan 全國人民代表大會　代表 香港保險中介人商會名譽顧問 For the Hong Kong Chamber of Insurance Intermediaries Yearbook 2012 10 2011 年刊與 2012 展望 YEARBOOK 2011 & PROSPECT 2012