Insurance Scam By Banker

Senior citizens continue to be duped into buying high-premium insurance policies, sold to them as annuity plans, with no attempt to stop or punish this widespread fraud. 

So how does this work? - It starts with bank Relation Manager (RM) calling customers with the offer of 'single premium' policies offering a fixed annuity. The RM is aware of the customer's financial strength, savings account balance, fixed deposits, credit card history and other details. 

 

A personal meeting is fixed where the customer is told that a single, lump sum investment will provide lifelong fixed returns. The minimum lump sum premium is usually large amount. The customer were assured of a regular annuity payment after a while. 

 

If the sales pitch succeeds, the RM notes down customer details on the prescribed application form and asks for signatures. Most people, who sign after such a sales pitch, do not make the effort to read the form, fill it up themselves in their own handwriting (as required by insurance policies) or even scrutinise it after it is done. 

 

These days, an RM will pull out a tab from his bag and start punching data into it for smoother and faster onboarding.  

 

The most important column in this form is 'Premium payment frequency.' The options are monthly, quarterly, half-yearly, yearly and lump sum. The RM puts a tick against the 'yearly' option without explaining the implications to the customer. It ensures that the customer only realises he or she has been duped after 11 months on receiving a notice for the next premium payment. 

 

When an average, middle-class customer signs up for such a hefty annual premium, it ought to raise a red flag but insurers have another check. Insurer should track and double-check such policies and punish mis-selling. But banks and insurers simply don't care. On the contrary, the RM, banker or agent who commits this fraud, is seen as a star salesperson and rewarded with incentives and bonuses.

 

Digging Deeper - It doesn't stop here. With another 11 months before the fraud is revealed, the agent uses the time to dig up information about a customer's family and sweet-talks them into purchasing additional policies in the names of children and grandchildren, portraying it as smart succession planning with benefits. A slow legal system, which gives primacy to the words of the contract and signatures affixed by the customer, works against them when they finally wake up and want to lodge a complaint. 

 

The scam is not limited to senior citizens. The younger generation, or Gen Z, is also casual and careless about reading and understanding insurance proposals and tends to sign forms blindly. This will ensure that the fraud remains active in the future. 

 

Police Detain Employee of Evergrande Group

Several employees working in the wealth management unit of the debt-ridden property developer Evergrande Group have been placed under criminal probe, signaling that China has gone a step further in tackling the problems of its property market.

Police Action - The case "is subject to further investigation," acording to Shenzhen police in South China's Guangdong Province said in a statement on Saturday night following a recent police action. Investors who bought Evergrande's "wealth management" products can report their cases through online channels, telephone calls, text messages and other means.

According to tianyancha, a corporate information platform, Evergrande Financial Wealth Management Co was set up in 2015, and was described as a wholly owned subsidiary of Evergrande Group.

On August 31, Evergrande's wealth management unit made an announcement, saying the company's asset disposal progress was not proceeding as expected, and it had not obtained asset disposal funds, so it could not make repayments for that month.

As of December 31, 2022, the unpaid principal and interest of Evergrande's wealth management products stood at nearly 34 billion yuan ($4.7 billion).

Hai Gang Life - In another development, Evergrande's life insurance arm on Friday was taken over by state-backed Hai Gang Life, according to a notice issued by the National Administration of Financial Regulation on Friday.

Local media earlier reported that Evergrande Life Assurance Co had become seriously insolvent, suffering huge losses. Hai Gang Life has registered capital of 15 billion yuan and will take over the assets and debts of Evergrande's insurance unit.

Evergrande Group is in the midst of a restructuring, with the long-running process hanging in the balance after a key vote on its offshore debt restructuring plan was delayed until October.

Evergrande's three main listed companies - China Evergrande Group, Evergrande Property Services Group and China Evergrande New-Energy Vehicle Group - have issued their financial statements and resumed trading on the Hong Kong stock market.

On Friday, China released data related with the real estate sector in the first eight months, showing that recovery signs were emerging. New home sales totaled 73.86 million square meters in August, up 4.8 percent from July, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics on Friday.

A month-on-month upward trend has begun to appear. Market sentiment is clearly positive, Yan Yuejin, a research director at Shanghai-based E-house China R&D Institute, told the Global Times on Sunday.

However, some foreign media rushed to talk down China's real estate sector after Friday's data release. Chinese analysts believe that the real estate industry has experienced some difficulties, but they are largely short-term issues and China's real estate sector has great potential for further development.

Analysts noted that China's urbanization rate was 66 percent in 2022. From the perspective of global economic development, before the urbanization rate reaches 75 percent, no country's real estate has encountered a sustained or irreversible bubble collapse.

China's urbanization is expected to maintain an average annual growth range of 0.5-0.8 percent, coupled with inter-city population migration, an economic recovery that drives residential housing consumption and sufficient medium- and long-term inelastic demand for housing, they said.

Evergande Insurance - For Sales

Chinese real-estate developer Evergrande Group is looking to sell its insurance businesses to a government-backed company. A Shenzhen-based state-owned organisation is in talks to acquire Evergrande Life Assurance Company and rename it Hai Gang Life Insurer, according to the sources. 

Evergrande currently owns 50% of Evergrande Life Assurance Company. The real estate developer, which has amassed a debt of hundreds of billions in Chinese Yuan, acquired a stake in the life insurer in 2015. Evergrande purchased the shares in Evergrande Life Assurance Company from the Chongqing City Construction Investment and the Chongqing Land Group.

The life insurer was formerly known as the Great Eastern Life Assurance Company (GELC).Evergrande, which is at the epicentre of a debt crisis that has affected China’s real estate market and slowed economic growth in the country, has sold a range of assets to pay off debts. 

The company sold its stake in Shengjing Bank Company last September in a deal brokered by the local authorities.Evergrande is attempting to get creditors to approve a significant offshore debt restructuring plan.

Following its default in late 2021, the company is also facing lawsuits worth billions of dollars.

Cancer - Rising

The number of people aged under 50 diagnosed with cancer has surged worldwide in the last three decades, but it is not fully clear why. Cases of cancer among people aged 14 to 49 rose by nearly 80%, from 1.82 million to 3.26 million, between 1990 to 2019, according to the study published Sept 6 (2023) in the journal BMJ Oncology.

While experts cautioned that some of that increase was explained by population growth, previous research has also indicated that cancer is becoming more commonly diagnosed among under-50s. The international team of researchers behind the new study pointed to poor diet, smoking and alcohol as major risk factors underlying cancer in the age group.

Mortality - A little over one million people under 50 died of cancer in 2019, up 28% from 1990. The deadliest cancers were breast, oesophagus, lung, bowel and stomach cancers. Breast cancer was the most commonly diagnosed over the three decades. But the cancers that rose the fastest were of the nasopharynx, where the back of the nose meets the top of the throat, and prostate. Liver cancer meanwhile, fell by 2.9% a year.

The researchers used data from the 2019 Global Burden of Disease Study, analysing the rates of 29 different cancers in 204 countries. The more developed the country, the more likely it was to have a higher rate of under-50s diagnosed with cancer, the study said.

This could suggest that wealthier countries with better healthcare systems catch cancer earlier, but only a few nations screen for certain cancers in people under 50, the study added.
As well as poor diet, smoking and drinking, genetic factors, physical inactivity and obesity could also contribute to the trend, the study said.

What & How - Modelling predicted that the number of global cancer cases in under-50s will rise a further 31% by 2030, mostly among people aged 40-49. The researchers acknowledged that cancer data from different countries varied greatly, with developing nations potentially under-reporting cases and deaths.

Experts not involved in the study said the slower increase in deaths, compared to cases, was likely due to improvements in early detection and treatment. University of London, United Kingdom, professor of cell biology Dr Dorothy Bennett pointed out that the world’s population grew by roughly 46% between 1990 and 2019, accounting for some of the increasing cases.

Full understanding of the reasons driving the observed trends remains elusive, although lifestyle factors are likely contributing, and novel areas of research such as antibiotic usage, the gut microbiome, outdoor air pollution and early life exposures are being explored.

Wang Bin - China Life Insurance Company

The former chairman of China Life Insurance, Wang Bin, has become the latest high-profile boss to be imprisoned as Beijing's crackdown on the financial industry continues. Mr Wang was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve, according to a court ruling seen by the BBC.
After two years, the sentence will be commuted to life in prison without parole, the ruling says.

In April, authorities warned that the crackdown was far from over. A court in Jinan in eastern China's Shandong province found Mr Wang guilty of taking 325 million yuan ($44.6m; £35.7m) in bribes.

Mr Wang, who was the firm's Communist Party chief, was also sentenced to a year in prison for illegally hiding 54.2 million yuan in overseas deposits.He is the latest boss from a major Chinese financial institution to be ensnared in President Xi Jinping's more than two-year longcrackdown on corruption in the $60 trillion (£48 trillion) industry.

In 2021, Lai Xiaomin, the former chairman of Huarong - was executed after being found guilty of corruption and bigamy. The same year, former China Development Bank chairman Hu Huaibang was sentenced to life in prison in a 85.5 million yuan bribery case.

Bao Fan, one of the country's most high-profile billionaire bankers and the chief executive of China Renaissance Holdings is co-operating with authority since his disappearing last February. An investigation into Bank of China's party chief Liu Liange was launched in March. Mr Liu is suspected of "serious violations of discipline and law,.

In April, authorities said they were investigating Li Xiaopeng, the former chairman of state-owned asset management firm China Everbright Group. Fan Yifei, a deputy governor of the country's central bank, was arrested for suspected bribery in June and is facing a criminal investigation. He has also been expelled from the Communist Party.

PasarPolis Poised For Expansion

Indonesian online insurance marketplace PasarPolis is aiming to bring its services to other Southeast Asian countries such as the Philippines and Malaysia where it sees plenty of unrealized potential in its huge home market.

Founded in 2015 - PasarPolis, a so-called insurtech company based in Jakarta, offers products which are underwritten by larger insurance companies. Its investors include, SBI Investment, Xiaomi, Gojek and Tokopedia -- the latter two being the components of the merged ride-sharing and super app entity GoTo. Among PasarPolis' offerings are health and accident coverage for drivers and passengers using Gojek.

Indonesia - with a young and growing population of more than 270 million people, is the largest country in Southeast Asia and the fourth-biggest in the world. It's economy has been transformed in recent years through the emergence of local technology startups such as Bukalapak, Gojek and Tokopedia that have allowed consumers to access an array of services via smartphone.

Strategy - PasarPolis hopes to greatly simplify insurance in Indonesia and other Southeast Asian countries by offering full-stack digital insurance, meaning complete services from underwriting and pricing to sales, distribution and claim management. By automating the process, PasarPolis says it has reduced insurance costs to customers and created a convenient purchasing process and experience.

Traditional Distribution Channels - Insurance in Indonesia is still primarily sold through traditional channels such as agents and banks, and requires the filing of extensive paperwork. There is no efficient data-gathering system and process in Indonesia for the industry. This is a major problem resulting in high insurance premium, mis-selling and fraudulent claim. 

Digital Distribution - While PasarPolis still deploys agents, their primary distribution channel is through digital platforms like Gojek and Shopee, which allows them to reduce costs and slash premiums.

In Southeast Asia, insurance penetration tends to rise in tandem with a region's economic development, but the rate in Indonesia remains low compared to regional peers. According to data from Swiss Re Group, Indonesia's insurance penetration premiums stood at 1.6% of gross domestic product in 2021, far lower than Thailand's at 5.4% and Malaysia's at 5.3%.

90% of the people that bought insurance" from PasarPolis "are first-time consumers of insurance." PasarPolis says it issued over 500 million policies last year. The company's gross written premiums grew three times in 2022 from the previous year.

GX Bank Berhad - Malaysia

The Grab-led digital bank, GX Bank Bhd (GXBank) has completed an operational readiness review and has been approved to commence operations effective Sept 1, 2023, by the Minster of Finance and Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM). The latest development makes GXBank the first of the five digital bank license applicants to receive approval, and it is ahead of the April 2024 deadline set by BNM. 

GXBank said it will leverage technology and innovation to serve the needs of the unserved and underserved individuals, and micro and small medium enterprises (MSME). Additionally, the digital-only bank will support customers’ needs through various channels including a bank app and 24/7 customer support via multiple platforms.

GXBank is a subsidiary of GXS Bank Pte. Ltd., - the digital bank joint venture between Grab Holdings Limited and Singapore Telecommunications Ltd (Singtel) - and a consortium of other Malaysian investors, including Kuok Group.