Prudential Vietnam has released its separate financial statements for 2025, including notable information related to its tax obligations. Accordingly, the company must pay an additional VND135 billion, approximately US$5.1 million, in corporate income tax to the state budget due to tax violations arising in previous years.

Specifically, under “corporate income tax expenses,” Prudential Vietnam recorded an item titled “additional corporate income tax provision for previous years” worth VND135.09 billion (US$5.1 million). The company said the amount was paid to the state budget on November 6, 2025, under an administrative tax penalty decision issued by the Large Enterprise Tax Sub-Department on October 29, 2025.

The penalty decision was made based on tax inspection results and inspection records for the financial years ending in late 2023 and 2024. In addition to the penalty, Prudential Vietnam said it is still awaiting official guidance from competent authorities regarding several other expenses.

In the life insurance sector, Prudential was once one of the market leaders in revenue and brand coverage. In recent years, however, the company has also faced a decline in insurance revenue, similar to many other firms in the industry.

According to its financial statements, Prudential Vietnam’s insurance business revenue in 2025 fell to VND19.576 trillion (US$744 million), significantly lower than VND23.251 trillion (US$884 million) in 2024. Looking further back, the company’s net insurance business revenue reached nearly VND26.594 trillion (US$1.01 billion) in 2023 and nearly VND30.558 trillion (US$1.16 billion) in 2022.

Beyond falling revenue, Prudential Vietnam also recorded a gross loss of VND1.582 trillion (US$60 million), from insurance business activities in 2025. Even so, the company still reported after-tax profit of VND3.87 trillion (US$147 million) up about 41 percent from the previous year thanks to a sharp increase in financial income.

A major player once posted exceptional profit

Earlier, Prudential Vietnam earned VND2.737 trillion (US$104 million), in profit in 2024, VND3.114 trillion (US$118 million), in 2023, and VND3.637 trillion (US$138 million) in 2022. Notably, in 2022, the company recorded an exceptional profit increase, about 7.7 times higher than the previous year, making it the leader of the life insurance market.

According to a report released by Mirae Asset Vietnam in March 2023, from 2015 to 2022, revenue market share among the five largest life insurers remained relatively stable. The group included Bao Viet Life, Dai-ichi Life, Prudential, Manulife and AIA, far ahead of the rest of the market.

Financial statements for 2022 showed Bao Viet Life leading the market with insurance revenue of VND41.677 trillion (US$1.58 billion). Prudential ranked second with VND31.502 trillion (US$1.2 billion). Manulife was third with VND26.835 trillion (US$1.02 billion), followed by Dai-ichi Life with VND21.825 trillion (US$830 million), and AIA with VND17.808 trillion (US$677 million).

The rapid growth of Vietnam’s life insurance market was closely tied to the boom in bank-based insurance distribution, known as bancassurance. Insurance companies signed a series of exclusive contracts with banks to tap into their large existing customer bases.

Prudential previously entered exclusive distribution partnerships with several banks, including MSB, SeABank and VIB. Dai-ichi Life cooperated with SHB and Sacombank; Manulife sold insurance through Techcombank and VietinBank; while AIA partnered with VPBank and OCB.

With access to tens of millions of bank customers, life insurance revenue grew rapidly, with many companies surpassing the billion-dollar revenue mark. In return, banks collected huge upfront fees from exclusive partnership agreements with insurers.

However, the bancassurance model has also become the center of a series of controversies in recent years. The market has repeatedly seen complaints that bank employees provided incomplete advice or caused confusion between savings products and life insurance.

As a result, new business revenue in the life insurance sector has continued to decline in recent years. Many customers have become more cautious when approaching insurance products, especially those sold through banks.

Against this difficult market backdrop, the fact that a major insurer such as Prudential Vietnam has been penalized for tax violations and must pay more than VND135 billion (US$5.1 million), in additional tax has drawn public attention. The case also shows that regulators are tightening inspections of large-scale enterprises to improve transparency and limit losses to the state budget.

Manh Ha