67: Hong Kong's insurance-linked securities platform - ILS Asia interview

This episode of our podcast features an interview with Simon Lam, Executive Director, General Business at the Hong Kong Insurance Authority, who joined our latest event, ILS Asia 2021 to discuss Hong Kong's plans for its new insurance-linked securities platform.

Hong Kong already has an established insurance and reinsurance market, while its legislative preparations for ILS were completed at the beginning of 2021.

Since then the Insurance Authority has been building out its licensing and supervision infrastructure, with the support of an ILS working group, including notable ILS market players, Mr. Lam explained to the ILS Asia 2021 audience.

“As we all know, being efficient in licensing is very, very important for ILS issuers,” he explained. Saying that “We also started an ILS capacity building exercise for staff of the Insurance Authority, through the engagement of a professional ILS consultant.”

“The final piece was when the pilot ILS grant scheme was launched by the Hong Kong government in May,” Lam continued, saying that, “If you ask me where are we now, I would say that we are 99% ready for the first issuance.”

At the same time Hong Kong has been engaging with potential sponsors of insurance-linked securities (ILS) arrangements, to generate initial deal-flow interest.

Mr. Lam told our conference audience that, “In parallel, we are soliciting support from potential sponsors and I’m pleased to advise that we are already working on the first cat bond and hopefully, if all things go well, we will have the first ILS issue out of Hong Kong within this year.”

The panel session mentioned at the end will be included in a later podcast episode.