From Senor Bloombergo:
Moving to plug one popular way for moving money out of China, the currency regulator is imposing restrictions on buying insurance products overseas, people with knowledge of the matter said Tuesday. Purchases of insurance products overseas using UnionPay debit and credit cards will be capped at $5,000 per transaction effective Feb. 4, according to the people.
Purchases through China UnionPay Co. cards have been exempt from capital controls that limit Chinese individuals to bringing out a maximum of $50,000 per year. Chinese people have been flocking to Hong Kong to buy insurance policies, which typically come with better service than on the mainland and also offer them a way to skirt controls on how much capital they can move abroad.
“They are obviously trying to escape the impact of the yuan’s depreciation and evade capital controls in China,” Chen Xingyu, a Shanghai-based analyst at Phillip Securities Research, said before Bloomberg News reported on the restrictions.
Obviously! This won’t help the developing Hong Kong property accident:
Nor the Australian property landing, such as it is:
