Hong Kong's insurance sales have taken a hit in the past two months, as almost daily street protests " particularly in districts frequented by mainland Chinese visitors such as Tsim Sha Tsui and Mong Kok " have kept them away.
Policy sales have fallen by between 10 per cent and 20 per cent since June, according to Altruist Financial Group, which provides financial planning services in Hong Kong.
"Insurance sales are down with locals buying less, and mainland visitors are also buying less," said Altruist's chief operating officer Glenn Turner. "People are using their mobile phones to track all the things going on in the protests and have not paid attention to insurance cover."
The decline is bad news for Hong Kong's 70 life insurers and their combined sales force of 90,000 agents, especially those niche companies whose entire business model is aimed at selling various packages of health, medical or retirement plans to Chinese customers.
Mainland clients bought HK$12.77 billion (US$1.63 billion) of life and medical insurance policies in Hong Kong during the first quarter, or 26.4 per cent of all premium income sold during the three months, according to the Insurance Authority's data.
At their peak in 2016, Chinese customers bought 39 per cent of all new insurance policies sold in Hong Kong, as they sought alternatives to hedge against a deteriorating yuan.
Hong Kong has faced an unprecedented level of public unrest ever since an estimated 1 million protesters marched on the streets on June 9 to oppose an unpopular extradition bill.
Even though the bill had been declared "dead" by the city's Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, protests had persisted, and had deteriorated into mayhem, with police resorting to tear gas, pepper spray and rubber bullets in their daily clashes with mobs of protesters.
The escalation of violence had sapped business sentiment, reducing foot traffic in shopping centres and crimping retail sales. Real estate sales, a key barometer of consumer sentiment in land-scarce Hong Kong, plunged as homebuyers were reluctant to commit to large purchases at a time of uncertainty.
Stock market transactions and fundraising activities shrank, with three companies deferring a combined US$11 billion of initial public offerings (IPOs) since June.
Tourist arrivals to Hong Kong plunged by 26 per cent at the end of July, from 1.5 per cent in the middle of the month when compared with the same period last year, Commerce Secretary Edward Yau Tang-wah said last week. The decrease widened to 31 per cent in early August, from last year, the data showed.