HSBC Life's Chairwoman, Cheng Siyun, has made a public statement.
She participated in an exclusive interview, offering explanations regarding the recent capital increase for HSBC Life.
In June 2026, regulators approved an increase in HSBC Life's registered capital by 5.56 billion yuan, raising it from 26.76 billion yuan to 32.32 billion yuan.
Over the past four years, HSBC Life has received four capital injections from its major shareholder, HSBC Holdings PLC (HSBC Insurance), totaling over 22 billion yuan.
According to Cheng Siyun, HSBC Insurance's strategic capital injections are primarily aimed at strengthening the safety margin of the company's solvency and building a more substantial capital foundation for deepening its presence in the Chinese market.
The solvency of HSBC Life is currently declining.
As of the end of the first quarter of 2026, HSBC Life's core solvency adequacy ratio was 130.39%, and its comprehensive solvency adequacy ratio was 184.61%, representing decreases of approximately 21 and 23 percentage points, respectively, compared to the end of the previous quarter.
The funds from this capital increase will be primarily used for business development, financial returns, risk management and control, and core capability building.
Since taking the helm at HSBC Life, Cheng Siyun has maintained a low profile, focusing on internal management affairs.
In January 2025, HSBC Life's former chairwoman, Sun Danying, stepped down, with Cheng Siyun acting in the role. She formally assumed leadership of the company six months later.
Her resume indicates that Cheng Siyun has over 20 years of experience in actuarial consulting, insurance, and reinsurance industries, possessing extensive expertise in product solutions and risk management.
Prior to joining HSBC, she worked for over a decade at Swiss Re Group, holding key positions in Hong Kong, Singapore, and Beijing.
In November 2023, Cheng Siyun joined the HSBC Group as Chief Product Officer for the Group's insurance business. At the end of December 2025, she transferred to Hang Seng Insurance, a subsidiary of Hang Seng Bank within the HSBC Group, and officially became its Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer in late January 2026.
Currently, Cheng Siyun leads two major insurance platforms under the HSBC Group—HSBC Life and Hang Seng Insurance—carrying significant responsibilities.
Hang Seng Insurance is a local Hong Kong life insurer, while HSBC Life is a licensed life insurer in mainland China.
By comparison, Hang Seng Insurance is a leading mainstream insurer in Hong Kong, with total new individual premium income of 333 billion Hong Kong dollars in 2025. In contrast, HSBC Life, which focuses on the mainland market, reported insurance business revenue of 136.05 billion yuan in 2025, indicating a notable gap between the two.
In the mainland market, HSBC Life's scale ranks in the middle among foreign-funded life insurers, suggesting there is still considerable room for growth.
HSBC Life experienced three consecutive years of losses before finally turning a profit in 2024.
From 2020 to 2024, HSBC Life reported net profits of 65.60 thousand yuan, -2.25 billion yuan, -5.41 billion yuan, -0.85 billion yuan, and 1.95 billion yuan, respectively, resulting in a cumulative loss of approximately 6.49 billion yuan over the five-year period.
In Cheng Siyun's first full year at the helm, HSBC Life maintained profitability. In 2025, its cumulative net profit was 1.8 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 7.69%.
Regarding investment returns, HSBC Life achieved an investment yield of 3.82% and a comprehensive investment yield of 0.99% in 2025.
In mainland China, HSBC Life relies on synergies with other group entities, such as HSBC China, within the banking sector.
The company's written premium income is predominantly concentrated in the bancassurance channel.
The solvency report for the first quarter of 2026 shows that HSBC Life achieved written premiums of 48 billion yuan, of which the bancassurance channel contributed 40.19 billion yuan, accounting for over 80%.
This is both an advantage and a disadvantage.
While it allows HSBC Life to achieve lower customer acquisition costs and efficient scale expansion, the single-channel structure makes performance dependent on the bank's marketing cycles. Coupled with intense competition in the industry's bancassurance sector, this introduces operational uncertainties.
Furthermore, since the beginning of 2026, HSBC Life has discontinued three products: HSBC Huiying Fengnian 2026 Endowment Insurance (Participating), HSBC Huicaibao Plan E Whole Life Insurance (Investment-Linked), and HSBC Zunxiang Jinsheng Plan B Annuity Insurance (Participating).
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