In order to promote the healthy development of the insurance sector and to ensure that insurance intermediaries have adequate and continuous training, the Monetary Authority of Macao (hereafter called the “AMCM”) has launched the “Continuing Professional Development Programme for Insurance Intermediaries”. Starting from 1 January 2018, all individual insurance intermediaries must complete the required number of hours of training (hereafter as the “CPD hours”) in order to have their insurance intermediary licences renewed in the subsequent year.
Benefiting from the continuous economic development of the Macao SAR, stable employment environment and the income growth of the residents in general, the insurance sector has grown steadily. In the recent years, given the growing complexity of insurance products, the AMCM has continuously strengthened supervisory effort on insurance intermediaries by promoting effective regulatory measures. Hence, the AMCM launched the “Continuing Professional Development Programme for Insurance Intermediaries” (hereafter as “the Programme”) to enhance the professionalism of insurance intermediaries in order to protect the interests of the insuring public, and to instil higher customer confidence in insurance products.
This Programme applies to all authorised individual insurance agents and salesmen and the basic requirements are as follows: (1) For insurance intermediaries holding a licence to conduct one type of insurance business only, they are required to complete at least 5 CPD hours by the time of renewal of licence; and (2) For insurance intermediaries holding a licence to conduct more than one type of insurance business, they are required to complete at least 10 CPD hours by the time of renewal of licence. From 1 January 2019 onwards, insurance intermediaries must report to the AMCM the required number of CPD hours they have completed in order to have their insurance intermediary licences renewed.
According to the provisions of the Programme, the training activities that the individual insurance agents and salesmen can participate include seminars, lectures, workshops relating to finance and insurance, studies for undergraduate or postgraduate degrees in local or overseas educational institutes, studies for attaining specified professional qualifications or the continuing professional development activities of such professional qualifications, or other training activities recognised by the AMCM.
For details about this Programme, you may visit the designated website corner of the AMCM at www.amcm.gov.mo. For inquiries, please contact the hotline of Insurance Supervision Department at 8395 2206/8395 2218/8395 2280 or via email (ams.dsg@amcm.gov.mo). For inquiries relating to training activities, please contact the Macau Institute of Financial Services at 8297 2623/8297 2613 or visit their website at www.ifs.org.mo.