The South China Morning Post based its report this morning on unnamed sources inside and outside the banks in question.
As reported, Hong Kong banks began turning away from ILAS products this summer, following the introduction of more onerous compliance rules and commission disclosure. The products have also been the subject of a good deal of negative publicity over the last few months, as the SCMP and Hong Kong Consumer Council have highlighted certain problems associated with some ILAS schemes , and/or the way they have sometimes been sold.
In its report today, the SCMP said HSBC was “reviewing its sales of ILAS, which it is now selling only to customers who have bought the products before”, citing “two people familiar with the situation”.
These individuals told the SCMP that HSBC was keen to expand its target market for the products next year “to all customers who request” them. The publication then quoted a senior executive at a rival bank as saying that ILAS products "are still on HSBC’s shelf , but the staff are not promoting them actively to customers”.
Market watchers, meanwhile, told the SCMP, it said, that Standard Chartered Hong Kong, which stopped offering ILAS products at the end of June, was reviewing its ban and studying the possibility of resuming sales of the products next year.
The products' continued usefulness as income-generators for the banks was cited.
