MR CHAN KIN-POR (in Cantonese): Problems related to ILAS products vary. I believe the actions taken by the Government have addressed the problems, including those related to commission and product design, thereby making these products more loophole-free. However, when it comes to the regulation of the selling of investment products, the insurance sector strongly hopes that a licensing regime can be put in place. In the past, the SFC used to issue licences to insurers and insurers would encourage their practitioners to acquire a licence. After they had acquired a licence, such licensing practice was suddenly called off in a certain year. The SFC even said it did not have anything to do with it. This is indeed undesirable.
I am of the view that, in the long run, the Government has to consider how in this aspect … Of course, the Government has already plugged a lot of loopholes. For example, the requirement for audio recording all the conversations with customers will hold the insurers responsible when problems arise in the future. What I mean is that, in the long run, the authorities should issue licences to practitioners to encourage them to become more professional. I hope that the OCI will focus on the whole job, instead of having the SFC do a bit and the OCI do another bit, thus subjecting the industry to multi-regulators.
May I ask the Government what it will do in this respect? I believe we have a consensus on the need for a licensing regime for regulating, to a certain extent, the sale of ILAS products but the question is what the Government will do. I hope the Secretary will tell me that the authorities will designate the OCI as the single body responsible for this task instead of having multi-regulators, thus making insurance intermediaries not knowing what to do.
SECRETARY FOR FINANCIAL SERVICES AND THE TREASURY (in Cantonese): We also tend to let the OCI take up the regulatory role. We now focus on the sales related complaints, with a view to identifying and resolving the problems. Of course, we will review the situation again depending on how matter unfolds.