Year 2020 - CAPITALIZING ON PROFESSIONALS AND INSURTECH TO REACH GREATER HEIGHTS 善用專才與科技 保險中介創高峰

31 2019 年刊與 2020 展望 YEARBOOK 2019 & PROSPECT 2020 Capitalizing on Professionals to Reach Greater Heights We have come to the new year of 2020 just a few months ago and have encountered huge challenges posed by the social unrest in Hong Kong derived back from the second half year of 2019 and the outbreak of coronavirus in early 2020 in China which have affected human lives and business activities in Hong Kong and other places in the globe. These events brought both new challenges and opportunities to the insurance industry in Hong Kong in the months to come as well. We, as professionals in the industry, all have a major role to play. These new challenges faced by the insurance industry in Hong Kong include: • The handling of potential claims over various existing insurance policies incurred due to the social unrest (property damages, business interruption, bodily injuries, etc.) and the outbreak of coronavirus (bodily injuries, contingent business interruption, travel & medical expenses, etc.); • The correct interpretation of insurance policies based on limited experience of insurers and previous judicial precedence on similar incidents before; and • Appropriate terms and conditions to provide appropriate cover to the insureds and to provide adequate returns to the insurers in a long run. On the other hand, we can have vast opportunities stemmed from these new challenges, as long as we find the right ways to materialize these opportunities such as: • The provision of relevant covers tailored for the happening of these events, with relevant reinsurance support if needed in a global scale, to provide new streams of premiums to insurers; and • The products with affordable premiums to provide cover for these events and to provide immediate relief to the insureds, as well as society at large, at these difficult times to discharge social responsibility of insurers to a larger extent. Newly designed products Issues are bound to come up when new circumstances happen, such as the incident on major terrorist attack under the ‘911’ event in the United States of America in 2001, which changed the whole landscape of insurance cover for terrorist acts. Due to the withdrawal of cover for terrorist acts by major reinsurers in the globe after the ‘911’ event, the Government of Hong Kong started to provide the cover for the terrorist acts under compulsory Employees’ Compensation Insurance as from 2002. Insurers can participate in the scheme, subject to a levy to be charged. Covers can be provided to all employees in case of the happening of a terrorist attack and all businesses, particularly for those occupations with higher risks of terrorist attacks, could come to operate as before. Disruption in business in Hong Kong was minimized to a large extent with the provision of this cover in the market. 專題探討 FEATURE