Getting Money Out of China, One Swipe at a Time
Mainlanders come to Hong Kong to buy insurance.
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Hong Kong insurance agent Raymond Ng sold HK$28 million ($3.6 million) in insurance policies to a mainland Chinese client in March. It took more than 800 credit card swipes to complete the transaction.
Ng is one of dozens of Hong Kong agents—and maybe more—using this and similar tactics to get around new limits on mainlanders using credit cards to buy insurance, according to interviews with five agents working for four different insurance companies. Making multiple swipes can defeat a cap of about $5,000 per transaction set by Chinese authorities in February. The country is trying to slow the steady stream of cash going abroad and into foreign currency assets.