HSBC Holdings PLC hopes to make use of Hong Kong's preferential trade arrangements with China to set up a joint venture in China's insurance sector by year end, the Wall Street Journal Reported, citing a senior executive. The U.K. banking company already has exposure to China's insurance sector through a 19.9 percent stake in Ping An Insurance (Group) Co. of China, but it wants greater control over its planned new investment to benefit from the mainland's fast-growing insurance industry, said the paper. "The insurance market is deep; it's huge. There's plenty of room for us to grow," Peter Wong, executive director at Hong Kong & Shanghai Banking Corp., the Asian unit of HSBC, said in an interview. Mr. Wong said the bank plans to make use of the Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement that China and Hong Kong signed in 2003 to develop a channel to sell insurance to China's growing middle class. CEPA effectively gave Hong Kong businesses a head start on the liberalization measures China promised to make by the end of this year under its agreement to join the World Trade Organization.