MOF’s Insurance Supervisory Authority (ISA) says bancassurance in Vietnam has been developing rapidly in recent years. In H1 2022, insurance premiums from bancassurance accounted for 41 percent of total new premiums, thus helping the insurance sector to maintain stable growth.

At many banks, credit officers tell clients that if they want early disbursement of loans, they need to take life insurance policies. Some commercial banks even offer higher interest rates if depositors take life insurance policies.

The State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) has discovered the problems and imposed punishment for forcing clients to take insurance policies. However, this occurs at many banks and depositors do not want to take life insurance policies.

The case occurring at SCB as reported by some clients is an example.

Manulife Vietnam is an exclusive insurance provider at three banks – VietinBank, Techcombank and SCB.

In December 2020, Manulife Vietnam and VietinBank signed a cooperation agreement on the distribution of life insurance products via the bank’s network. The contract allowed Manulife to approach 14 million clients via VietinBank’s 150 branches and 1,000 transaction offices nationwide.

Both the banker and insurer have not revealed the details of the contract. However, according to Bloomberg, the bancassurance between VietinBank and Manulife is worth up to hundreds of millions of dollars.

At the 2022 shareholders’ meeting, VietinBank’s president Tran Minh Binh said the bank planned to obtain VND1 trillion in bancassurance revenue in 2022.

After four years of cooperation, in September 2018, Manulife Vietnam and Techcombank signed a cooperation bancassurance contract, which helps Manulife approach new clients through over 300 Techcombank’s branches and transaction offices nationwide.

In 2022, Techcombank received VND1.75 trillion worth of commissions for insurance policies, an increase of 12.34 percent over 2021.

Prior to that, in September 2015, Manulife Vietnam became the exclusive partner distributing insurance products via SCB’s network.

SCB has not released its Q4 2022 financial report. Meanwhile, the Q2 report did not show income from bancassurance service.

The complaints, in their petition, said SCB’s officers gave ambiguous advice. They did not say it was an insurance contract, but said it was an investment product developed by the bank and Manulife, and the insurance package was an enclosed gift.

They accused insurance agents of fraudulent behaviors to cheat people into taking insurance policies, and they asked to give back their money. The petition has been forwarded to the Ministry of Public Security.

Tuan Nguyen