Hong Kong insurance agent gets banned over misconduct in handling client premiums

The ban will last for 11 months.

The Insurance Authority of Hong Kong has revoked the license and imposed an 11-month ban on an agent over misconduct in handling a client’s premium.

On 2 October 2018, the agent received monies from her client in her personal bank account so she could pay it to her appointing insurer. The premium was for the purpose of reinstating the client’s insurance policy which had lapsed on 28 September 2018. The agent did not, however, pay the premium to her appointing insurer until 3 September 2019, some 11 months later, the IA reported.

During this 11-month period, the agent made misleading statements to both her client and her appointing insurer. The agent informed her client that she had paid the premium to the insurer leading her client to believe that the insurance policy had been reinstated. The agent also informed the insurer that the client would be paying the monies by internet banking.

“Whilst the insurance policy was eventually reinstated, after the client contacted the insurer directly and found out the truth, during the 11-month period prior to reinstatement, the client had been left without insurance coverage without even knowing it. Accordingly, not only did the insurance agent’s actions and omissions, in this case, fall well below the standards one would expect from a professional insurance agent, but they also demonstrated a clear lack of integrity and ethics. By her actions the agent breached the trust and integrity on which the insurance market must be founded and has rendered herself not fit and proper to be an insurance agent,” the IA said.

Since the facts of this case took place before the current regulatory regime for insurance intermediaries came into force (on 23 September 2019), the IA has decided this case by applying the applicable rules in place at the time and enacted the proper disciplinary action.