On 24 March 2022, the Faculty of Finance of the City University of Macau held the Finance Seminar Series [17], China Life - GuangFa Bank Joint Lecture– Third Talk, at Ho Yin Convention Centre. Mr Ulyssess Lao, Senior Account Manager of China Life Insurance (Overseas) Company Limited Macau Branch, was invited to deliver a speech titled “Analysis of Hong Kong and Macau Insurance: A view from Civil and Commercial Law”. Guests attending this seminar include Mr Paul Chan, Head of Personal Agent Department and Mr Chaohui Jin, Senior Branch Manager of China Life Insurance (Overseas) Company Limited Macau Branch; Ms Baoguo Lin, Deputy General Manager of Corporate Banking Department, China Guangfa Bank Macau Branch; Dean Adrian Cheung and Associate Dean Eva Khong of the Faculty of Finance, City University of Macau.
To begin with, Mr Lao outlined the definition of insurance. Human society is always disturbed by natural disasters and accidents, the idea of insurance has long been sprouted. According to the Insurance Law of the People’s Republic of China, the term “insurance” means the commercial activities where an insurance applicant pays an insurance premium to an insurer under an insurance contract and the insurer undertakes to pay the insurance money to compensate for the property loss caused by the occurrence of a potential incident specified in the insurance contract. Insurance can be divided into five categories: casualty insurance, life insurance, education insurance, pension insurance and health insurance. Insurance can isolate risks, protect the property safety of the insured, and also have the function of wealth management.
Mr Lao introduced the insurance law system and its relationship with other legal departments. Insurance Law refers to the general term of legal norms with insurance relationship as the subject matter, including insurance contract law, assurance law and special insurance law. Insurance law is a branch of commercial law in countries where civil and commercial laws are separated, which governs commercial insurance relations and regulates commercial insurance behavior. In countries where civil and commercial laws are integrated, insurance law is a special branch of civil law that deals with the insured involving obligation law, inheritance law and marriage law. Simultaneously, insurance law is inseparable from economic law that the regulations of supervising insurance companies and intermediaries are part of the economic law.
At the end of the sharing session, the students took this valuable opportunity to actively pose questions about the development of the insurance industry in Hong Kong, Macau and the Mainland. Mr Lao responded and shared his views clearly. The lecture helped students to have a deeper understanding of the operation of insurance. The Faculty of Finance will continue to invite experts from different fields of the financial industry to share their insights with students in order to enrich their knowledge.