The Insurance Claims Complaints Bureau of Hong Kong saw a 7% increase in the number of new complaints it received from consumers since last year, to 647 cases.
Of the 333 cases closed by the agency last year, almost 60% were found to have no prima facie evidence, said a report by the South China Morning Post. The bureau had also ruled in favour of two policyholders out of the 333 cases it had closed last year—16% of the cases were resolved through mutual settlement.
The South China Morning Post report also noted that roughly half of the cases closed by the agency were related to medical insurance, while 20% were about travel insurance.
“The number of policies in Hong Kong has been steadily increasing for many years. When you have more policies, complaints will also rise,” said the chairman of the bureau's complaints panel, Michael Tsui Fuk-sun. “Proportionally, I have a feeling that it’s actually not rising that much compared to the number of policies issued every year.”
The bureau also recorded 30 complaints from mainland residents the previous year. Most of the cases were related to either medical or life insurance.
