Mainlanders buying fewer insurance products in HK

Visitors from the Chinese mainland purchased less insurance products in Hong Kong during the first nine months of the year as tighter capital controls crimped sales, the Hong Kong's Insurance Authority said on Wednesday.

New premiums for policies sold to mainland visitors by insurers in Hong Kong declined 20.8 percent on a quarterly basis in the first three months of this year, 38.3 percent in the second quarter and 13 percent in the third, it said.

In the third quarter of this year, mainland visitors bought insurance policies in Hong Kong worth HK$10.1 billion ($1.29 billion), a 46.6 percent decrease from HK$18.9 billion during the same period of last year. In the first nine months of this year Hong Kong insurers sold HK$40.5 billion of new insurance policies to mainland customers, 17 percent down from HK$48.9 billion in the same period last year.