Number of insurance-related complaints up by a third

The Insurance Complaints Bureau (ICB) on Tuesday said it received 857 new complaint cases in 2025, an increase of 32.7 percent from the year before. Almost half of the cases completed involved medical-related policies, while around a fifth involved travel. The bureau said 124 complainants received HK$13.6 million between them in compensation. The single largest amount, HK$820,000, went to relatives of a man who died of a head injury after slipping in wet weather. The insurer originally rejected the accidental death claim, noting that the man had recently had a stroke and also had underlying conditions. Michael Tsui, who chairs the bureau's insurance claims complaints panel, said there have been no complaints to date relating to last year's deadly Tai Po fire. "The insurance industry has been behaving very well, they've actually gone all the way to negotiate and to pay whenever they can, rather than trying to resist," Tsui said. Edited by Thomas McAlinden