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InsuTech

InsuTech

Stories about how technology is used to enhance all aspects of the insurance industry, including life and general insurance

Fred Ngan Yiu-fai, Bowtie’s co-founder and co-CEO, at the virtual insurer’s Bow Coffee in Hong Kong’s Wan Chai. Photo: Jonathan Wong

Bowtie eyes disruption amid HKMA’s fintech push in securities, insurance sectors

The latest move by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, expanding its fintech development road map to include insurance firms and brokers, will encourage more financial companies to adopt technology for cutting costs and enhancing services, industry players said.

6 Oct 2023 - 7:30AM

Banking & finance

Hong Kong’s digital insurers target tech-savvy clients, but no match for traditional firms

5 Dec 2021 - 1:40PM

Will Greater Bay Area solidify Hong Kong’s role as a fintech hub?

12 Nov 2021 - 6:24PMvideocam

Banking & finance

Exclusive | Hong Kong looks to technology to cover US$885 billion protection shortfall

Hong Kong faces a mortality protection gap of HK$6.9 trillion (US$884.6 billion), which could cause many families undue financial trouble in the event of the death of the main earner, according to an Insurance Authority study.

23 Sep 2021 - 10:39AM

Prudence Ho, senior manager for policy and development at the Insurance Authority, says Hongkongers want investment returns from their insurance policies. Photo: Xiaomei Chen

Online pet insurer raises US$28 million amid strong appetite for digital firms

OneDegree, Hong Kong’s only online pet insurer, has raised US$28 million in its latest funding round, it said on Monday.

30 Aug 2021 - 10:45PMvideocam

Coronavirus Hong Kong

AIA launches telemedicine service with hospital as Covid-19 grips

DrGo is the first of a growing number of telemedicine services in Hong Kong that are sprouting up to bring accessibility and convenience to customers via a combination of technology and health care, delivered with social distancing in mind as the coronavirus spreads.

3 Dec 2020 - 1:21PM

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Alipay launches facial recognition for pets

Ant Financial’s e-payment platform can identify pets by their unique nose prints.

21 Jul 2020 - 6:15PM

Alipay’s AI algorithm provides instructions that guide users through taking a photos of their pets to enrol them into its pet insurance program. Picture: Handout

Ex-JPMorgan banker’s pet project – start-up gets virtual insurance licence

OneDegree has received a virtual insurance licence from Hong Kong regulator, with the aim of providing medical coverage for dogs and cats.

15 Apr 2020 - 6:45PM

Health in China

Here’s how tech cuts China’s medical cost to the price of a Starbucks coffee

In the fourth in a five-part series, Enoch Yiu looks how technology firms like Ant Financial and Tencent Holdings are using their innovative powers to create insurtech and mutual aid platforms that make health care coverage affordable to more people.

4 Apr 2020 - 12:49PMvideocam

Coronavirus pandemic: All stories

Prudential should move Asian base to Hong Kong, urges activist investor

The British insurer needs to break up into two publicly listed companies focused on the US and Asia to boost shareholder value, said activist investor Third Point.

25 Feb 2020 - 10:02PMvideocam

Ant Financial mutual-aid platform attracts 100 million users in first year

Xiang Hu Bao, an online mutual-aid platform owned by Ant Financial, has attracted 100 million users since its launch a year ago and helped insurers on the platform increase their health policy revenues by 60 per cent.

27 Nov 2019 - 10:54PM

Xiang Hu Bao was launched in October 2018 on Ant Financial’s mobile payments platform, Alipay. Photo: Handout

China’s biggest insurer turns its big data toward building smart cities

3 Sep 2019 - 10:59PM

Shanghai Insurtech firm eyes expansion after US$10 million funding

Shanghai-based insurance technology start-up The CareVoice has raised US$10 million in a funding round led by Chinese investment management company Lun Partners Group, it said on Thursday.

22 Aug 2019 - 7:00AM

Ping An posts interim profit jump since 2015 on one-time tax gain

The insurer, established three decades ago in China’s technology hub of Shenzhen, is also one of China’s largest financial conglomerates, involved in a range of businesses on top of insurance, including banking, wealth management, technology and health care.

16 Aug 2019 - 8:02PM

Former Financial Secretary John Tsang joins virtual insurer

Analysts believe a big name like Tsang could help the digital start-up to compete with traditional insurers.

2 Apr 2019 - 3:20PM

Former Hong Kong Financial Secretary John Tsang joins virtual insurer Bowtie as a senior adviser

China to become world’s biggest insurance market in mid-2030s – overtaking US

China’s ageing population expected to mean more sales of annuity and health insurance products as parents try relieve burdens on sole child.

8 Mar 2019 - 11:22AM

China drove fintech funding globally in 2018 despite rising US tensions

Global investment in financial technology companies more than doubled to US$55.3 billion last year, driven by US$14 billion fundraising by Ant Financial Services

26 Feb 2019 - 10:57PM

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Ping An Insurance

Ping An Tech vies for China’s cloud market leadership in three years

Its expansion will see it take on Alibaba and Tencent, which control 50 per cent and 10 per cent of China’s public cloud market respectively

27 Dec 2018 - 10:07PM

Companies are increasingly opting for cloud infrastructure as they look to build innovative services. Photo: Shutterstock

London billionaire Michael Spencer boosts stake in Singapore Life

7 Dec 2018 - 9:42PM

Ping An Insurance

Insurer Ping An targets banks, hospitals with new cloud service

18 Oct 2018 - 7:04AM

Data tracking about to change the way insurance companies do business, says Ping An tech fund

22 Jul 2018 - 9:47PM

The huge amount of sensor data made available from these devices related to the internet of things will have a big impact on business insurance, according to Donald Lacey, managing director and chief operating officer of Ping An Global Voyager Fund.

Are insurers prepared for the day when cars drive themselves autonomously?

Report by Insurance Society of China and Fudan University urges industry ‘to get better prepared for a changing landscape as many jobs could be replaced’

28 May 2018 - 1:48PM

So far only a handful of domestic insurers have taken any concrete action to adopt new car insurance technology, lagging behind their foreign rivals globally, says a new Insurance Society of China study. Photo: SCMP

One company wants to sign up your cat (or dog) for vet bill insurance

16 May 2018 - 10:24PM

Banking & finance

2.3 million Chinese financial sector jobs could be lost to AI by 2027

30 Mar 2018 - 11:18PM

Huge response to Insurance Authority’s fast track licensing scheme

But Hong Kong’s insurance regulator is yet to give licences to any of the 40 plus companies that have made enquiries so far

8 Mar 2018 - 3:43PM

The Insurance Authority in September introduced a fast track licensing programme to allow tech firms to operate online-only insurance businesses. Photo: Alamy

Tencent to expand presence in Hong Kong with new online insurer

14 Feb 2018 - 9:33AM

ZhongAn turns to big data and AI to shape future of car insurance

3 Jul 2018 - 8:22PM

ZhongAn makes 70pc of 2017 car insurance premiums in one month

4 Feb 2018 - 7:19PM

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