The Market

As at 30 June 2010, there were 170 authorized insurers in Hong Kong, of which 105 were pure general insurers, 46 were pure long-term insurers and the remaining 19 were composite insurers.

According to the statistics as at 30 June 2010 provided by the Insurance Agents Registration Board ("IARB"), there were 2,365 insurance agencies, 32,381 individual agents and 25,911 responsible officers/technical representatives registered with the IARB.

There were 572 authorized insurance brokers as at 30 June 2010. All of them are members of the two approved bodies of insurance brokers, namely The Hong Kong Confederation of Insurance Brokers and Professional Insurance Brokers Association. In addition, there were 7,423 persons registered as chief executives/technical representatives of these authorized brokers as at 30 June 2010.

In 2008, total gross premiums of Hong Kong insurance industry decreased by 4.4% to HK$188.7 billion, representing about 11.3% of the Hong Kong Gross Domestic Product.