The Market

As at 30 September 2011, there were 164 authorized insurers in Hong Kong, of which 98 were pure general insurers, 46 were pure long-term insurers and the remaining 20 were composite insurers.

According to the statistics as at 30 September 2011 provided by the Insurance Agents Registration Board ("IARB"), there were 2,366 insurance agencies, 33,784 individual agents and 27,124 responsible officers/technical representatives registered with the IARB.

There were 585 authorized insurance brokers as at 30 September 2011. 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 8,599 persons registered as chief executives/technical representatives of these authorized brokers as at 30 September 2011.

In 2010, total gross premiums of the Hong Kong insurance industry increased by 11% to $205 billion, representing about 11.8% of Hong Kong's gross domestic product.