Hong Kong insurers benefit from expanded staff, as sales rise in first half after rescued flight attendants bring in more local business

Total sales of new life insurance policies rose 23 per cent in first half to US$10.4 billion

Dramatic increase in headcounts helps generate new local business, offsetting the absence of big-spending mainland Chinese customers

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Major Hong Kong insurers have created jobs for many flight attendants and ground crew that were made redundant last year. Photo: Xiaomei Chen

Published: 8:00pm, 31 Aug 2021Updated: 10:32pm, 31 Aug 2021

Hong Kong’s insurance companies, which came to the rescue of laid-off flight attendants last year and hired a large number as sales agents, have achieved good growth in the first half of 2021.

The total sales of new life insurance policies rose 23 per cent in this period to HK$80.5 billion (US$10.4 billion), according to data released by the Insurance Authority on Tuesday. At Manulife, the city’s second-largest insurer by number of agents, an expanded sales force helped new business grow 86 per cent year on year to HK$13.7 billion. It ranked top among all insurers in the first half of this year.

“We continue to hire agents, as we are committed to Hong Kong. We invested in our sales force and office spaces even when the economy was not good … as we believed we could achieve a good return in the longer term,” said Damien Green, the Canadian insurer’s CEO for Hong Kong and Macau.

Damien Green, Manulife’s CEO for Hong Kong and Macau. Photo: May Tse

Manulife along with other major insurers such as AIA and Prudential created jobs for many flight attendants and ground crew that were made redundant last year after Cathay Pacific, Hong Kong’s flagship carrier, axed more than 5,000 jobs in the city and completely shut down Cathay Dragon, its regional airline, in October. The redundancies came as the Covid-19 pandemic crippled the global aviation industry.

The dramatically increased headcounts, however, added new local business for the insurers. This offset the huge loss of sales coming from mainland Chinese customers, who have been unable to travel to the city because of strict border controls introduced to contain the spread of the pandemic.