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The Hong Kong Insurance Authority (IA) has signed a financial technology agreement with the Gibraltar Financial Services Commission (GFSC). This is the latter’s first-ever fintech partnership.
The memorandum comes after a request by Gibraltar minister for commerce Albert Isola to IA chief executive John Leung during a Hong Kong visit in October 2017, reported Vox.
“I am very pleased to see this first fintech cooperation agreement by the GFSC with the insurance regulator in Hong Kong, and I am most grateful to the regulatory teams in Gibraltar and Hong Kong for having completed this work over the last months,” commented Isola. “The Gibraltar DLT Working Group has strongly focused on bringing the new regulatory framework to life and working with other authorities in major fintech jurisdictions is now the next step forward.”
The Insurance Authority took over regulatory duties in Hong Kong in June 2017, replacing the now-defunct Office of the Commissioner of Insurance. The new regulator has expanded powers for authorisation and supervision, and is independent of the government.
“It is particularly pleasing that Gibraltar has been able to establish this new relationship in the IA’s first year of operation,” added Isola, who was accompanied at the signing by Michael Ashton and Paul Astengo, senior executives of Gibraltar Finance, and Bruno Callaghan, a GFSC board member.
