Prudential, Manulife, and FWD were among the first insurance firms to transfer insurance transactions to digital platforms, who are now followed by Chubb Life, Generali Vietnam, and Hanwha Life.

Recently, the Vietnam-based arm of FWD insurance firm launched the online purchasing option for "FWD cancer care," a life insurance package which promises customers to pay the entire sum assured for cancer diagnosis at any stage.

Previously, in October 2017, the insurance firm also launched a personal accident insurance package for 100,000 customers on Tiki.vn, a Vietnam-based e-commerce shopping platform, which was only tradable on the firm's online platform, providing customers with protection against risk of death and accidental injuries.

Thus, insurance policies drafted on the online platform were previously legally acknowledged, ameliorating legal matters encountered in the traditional method.

In addition, Manulife previously initiated online insurance trading services by launching three different types of insurance products priced VND600,000-1.5 million (US$26.34-65.85), offering exclusive benefits on the online trading platform.

Likewise, in order to keep up with the late trend in the insurance sector, US-invested insurance firm Prudential revealed plans to launch new insurance products on its online trading platform in 2018.

A representative of a Vietnam-based insurance firm asserted that customers will likely lean towards conducting insurance purchases on the online platforms due to the time-saving product selection process that brings the time needed to draft and issue an insurance policy down to a mere 10-20 minutes.

The representative also added that insurance firms would also be required to consider strategic partnerships with e-commerce firms in order to "digitalise" their conventional insurance business.

VIR