The Insurance Authority (IA) of Hong Kong has published its findings of two consultations for draft regulations regarding insurance intermediaries.

These are the Guideline on ‘Fit and Proper’ Criteria for Licensed Insurance Intermediaries under the Insurance Ordinance and the Guideline on Continuing Professional Development for Licensed Insurance Intermediaries.

The consultations were held between September and November 2018, with a total of 74 respondents composed of various practitioners and organisations within the industry.

According to the IA, the majority of respondents supported the proposal to raise the minimum education requirements of licensed insurance intermediaries. This, in their view, will help improve their quality of service and professionalism.

In future, new licensees must attain a standard of Level 2 or above for five subjects in the Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education Examination (including Chinese or English and Mathematics), while new responsible officers of insurance agencies and broker companies must possess a bachelor’s degree, in addition to the requisite experience, the IA said, adding that the proposed organisational competence requirements on insurance agencies and broker companies were also widely endorsed.

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Meanwhile, the proposal to increase the minimum Continuing Professional Development (CPD) hours from 10 to 15 per year was also accepted by majority of respondents. These CPD requirements include three hours on ‘ethics and regulations’. E-learning courses will also be accepted for this purpose, the regulator said.

The IA will give certain exemptions and transitional arrangements are provided for existing practitioners to facilitate smooth transition. Both guidelines will take effect alongside the new statutory regulatory regime for insurance intermediaries on September 23, except for the new minimum CPD hours, which will come into effect on August 01, 2021.