1 August 2024
The Insurance Authority (IA) continues to strengthen enforcement work and imposed a ban on four individuals who made use of false academic certificates to apply for registration as licensed insurance agents during the period between 2014 and 2019.
Among the four individuals, three produced an academic certificate issued by the same university in Mainland China which was not in existence at the material time. For the fourth case, the relevant educational institute confirmed that it has neither issued an academic certificate nor any records to support that the individual did graduate from the institute. One individual who admitted to the allegation is banned from applying for registration as licensed insurance agent for 23 months, while the other three received a ban of 35 months.
The IA wishes to cite these disciplinary actions to stress again that the use of false or forged documents is a serious act of deceit that undermines the probity and integrity of industry practitioners. Such transgressions, if allowed to perpetuate, will erode public trust in the insurance industry and do injustice to other insurance intermediaries who strive in good faith to meet the licensing criteria. Denial of entry into the trade is thus necessary and justified until the four individuals can establish to our satisfaction that they have undergone a complete reformation of character and obtained the requisite academic qualification.
Since these offences occurred before the IA took over from the three self-regulatory bodies on 23 September 2019, they have to be handled in accordance with requirements prevailing at the time and disciplinary approaches adopted by the former Insurance Agency Registration Board1. Due consideration has been made on the level of cooperation shown by each of the individuals and whether they confessed to the wrongdoings. It is particularly worth reiterating that such offences attract much more severe penalties under the new regulatory regime rolled out by the IA that could entail a fine of $50,000 and imprisonment for six months2.
For further information, please browse through the section titled “Enforcement News” and the “Register of Licensed Insurance Intermediaries” on our website.
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Notes:
1 Pursuant to section 113(4)(d) of Schedule 11 to the Insurance Ordinance (IO), the IA may impose disciplinary action on a specified person that could have been imposed by the SRO concerned had the case been handled by it.
2 Under Section 64ZZE of the IO, an individual convicted of providing false information in connection with application for licence or approval is liable to a fine at level 5 (i.e. HK$50,000) and imprisonment for 6 months.