The Insurance Authority has reappointed Clement Cheung Wan-ching as chief executive for a further three years, beginning August 15, 2026. The government confirmed the reappointment on August 14, days after sources told the South China Morning Post that Cheung would be kept on to help the industry navigate Beijing's tightened overseas income tax enforcement.
Cheung, 64, has led the IA since 2018. He will serve until August 14, 2029.
Speaking after the official announcement, Cheung set out his first priority in direct terms. "The priority of the Insurance Authority will be placed on broadening the regional clientele beyond Chinese mainland visitors, ensuring customers are treated fairly and can derive value from insurance products," he told the South China Morning Post. "We just have to make ourselves less vulnerable and more competitive."
Mainland Chinese visitors have been a defining force in Hong Kong's insurance market, with wealthy individuals and families across the region using Hong Kong policies for wealth diversification and intergenerational planning. Life insurance sales reached record levels in recent years on the back of that demand. The Hong Kong Insurance Authority stopped publishing separate mainland visitor figures in 2025 while it reviewed its data collection methodology, but market participants have continued to track the segment's significance through other indicators.
That growth now faces headwinds. The State Taxation Administration reiterated in August that Chinese tax residents must declare and pay individual income tax on worldwide income, including returns from overseas insurance products. The clarification, described by the STA as a reminder of an existing obligation rather than a new policy, nonetheless unsettled parts of Hong Kong's banking and insurance sector as it sharpened focus on the tax position of mainland buyers holding Hong Kong policies.
A source cited by the South China Morning Post said Cheung's reappointment was intended to ensure continuity and stability as the industry navigates this pressure. Broadening the client base - developing relationships with buyers in Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and other regional markets rather than depending on a single source of demand - is Cheung's publicly stated response to that vulnerability.
For intermediaries operating in Hong Kong, the IA's priority direction is a signal that regulatory expectation will increasingly lean toward diversified distribution. Brokers and agents who have built books heavily weighted toward mainland Chinese clients should expect the regulatory environment to favour those who can demonstrate they are developing alternative client sources.
Cheung also said he would like to see Hong Kong expand specialty insurance and reinsurance to support national development, and that the IA would continue reviewing medical insurance and introduce measures to help Hong Kong insurers offer extended care services across the Greater Bay Area.
Hong Kong's secretary for financial services and the treasury, Christopher Hui Ching-yu, and IA chairman Stephen Yiu both credited Cheung with steering the regulator through a complex external operating environment. During his current tenure, the IA implemented and refined the risk-based capital regime, developed a captive insurance strategy, nurtured the insurance-linked securities market, and formed a marine specialty risks pool.
