HONG KONG HAS THE world’s highest insurance penetration rate—and one of the few which is busy paying claims with speed and sympathy, it was revealed today.
The first point shows the world-beating financial sophistication of the city on the south coast of China—and the second shows how the community is pulling together after the Tai Po fire, which has killed more than 150 people.
Insurance companies, normally famous for their reluctance to hand out cash, is working overtime to pay the large number of claims that are coming from many of the residents of the fire-hit towers.
“The swift and compassionate response from our insurance sector, facilitating claims processes with efficiency and empathy, has provided vital support to those affected, underscoring the sector’s enduring role as a pillar of societal resilience,” the city’s treasury chief Christopher Hui said this morning at an insurers’ conference.
One can only hope that the insurance claim pay-out departments continue this co-operative attitude.
it has become clear this week that the community is not just financially sophisticated but also generous. The government put HK$300 million in a fund for survivors and individuals and businesses quickly bumped up the figure to more than HK$2 billion.
The government has already started handing out the cash to survivors of the fire.
While Hong Kong is known as a low-crime city with people feeling safe on the streets, the financial planning statistics show a high rate of trust in institutions too. “These are not mere statistics or numbers; they are proof of the trust that individuals, families, and enterprises place in Hong Kong as their preferred centre for managing risk,” Mr Hui said.
In related news, an international court for mediation has been set up in Hong Kong—one of only four “global courtrooms” in the world.
Image at the top: By Samson Ng . D201@EAL – https://www.flickr.com/photos/samsonngd201/54948071256/, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=178984901