Hong Kong's Insurance Authority has extended the validity of temporary facilitative measures to 31 March 2021.
In view of the latest developments of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Insurance Authority (IA) on 2 December issued a circular to authorised long-term insurers announcing the extension of temporary facilitative measures for non-face-to-face distribution of specific protective insurance products to 31 March 2021. The scope of products covered and the implementation details of the measures remain unchanged.
Products covered by the temporary facilitative measures include Qualifying Deferred Annuity Policy (QDAP), Voluntary Health Insurance Scheme (VHIS) products, term life policies, and refundable policies without substantial savings component or renewable policies without cash value that provide insurance protection.
Insurers and intermediaries can distribute those products via different non-face-to-face means, such as digital, telemarketing, postal or video conferencing, but are required to make upfront disclosure at the point-of-sale and provide an extended cooling-off period of no less than 30 calendar days for the protection of policy holders.
The circular sent to all Chief Executives of authorised insurers carrying on long term insurance business was signed off by Carol Hui Executive Director, Long Term Business, Insurance Authority:
Extension of Phase 2 of the temporary facilitative measures to tackle the outbreak of COVID-19
Further to our circulars on 27 March, 15 June and 4 September 2020 regarding Phase 2 of the temporary facilitative measures (“TFM”) to obviate the need to conduct face-to-face (“F2F”) meetings in order to minimize the risk of infection during the sale process of insurance policies, the Insurance Authority (“IA”) sees the need to extend it in view of the current pandemic situation.
In this regard, Phase 2 of the TFM will be extended by another three months to 31 March 2021 (based on policy application date) unless otherwise varied by the IA. For the avoidance of doubt, the scope of products covered and the implementation details remains unchanged.
In case of doubt, please contact your case officers accordingly.
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