Regulators in Hong Kong stepped up studies on plans to better connect the city’s insurance market with that of the mainland under a broader plan to enhance financial connectivity in the Greater Bay Area, said Moses Cheng Mo-chi, chairman of Hong Kong’s Insurance Authority.

The Insurance Authority proposed allowing Hong Kong-registered insurance companies to open service offices in mainland cities in the Greater Bay Area and set up a special channel for the marketing, sale and processing of insurance products in the two markets, Cheng said.

The insurance connect program will be modeled on existing programs linking the bond and stock markets between Hong Kong and the mainland, Cheng said.

Financial connectivity is a major part of China’s ambitious plan to develop the Greater Bay Area to create a new regional financial and innovation hub around the Pearl River Delta.

Integration of insurance and wealth management markets is a key part of the plan for the area and are expected to kick off by 2022, said James Lau, Hong Kong’s secretary for financial services and the treasury, in February.