New policy boosts insurance market's long-term development

New policy boosts insurance market's long-term development

An office of Bảo Việt Insurance Corporation in Hà Nội. By the end of May  二0 二 二, the total insurance premium revenue of the insurance market reached nearly VNĐ 九 四. 二 八 trillion, up  一 六 per cent over the same period last year. Photo mof.gov.vn

HÀ NỘI — The newly-issued Law on Insurance Business is expected to positively impact the insurance market's long-term development.

The National Assembly on June  一 六 passed the amended Law on Insurance Business, with  九 四. 二 per cent of delegates voting in favour. The revised law will enter into effect on January  一, next year.

The Law stipulates the organisation and operation of insurance companies, the rights and obligations of organisations and individuals participating in insurance, and State management of insurance business activities.

According to the Ministry of Finance (MoF), the country currently has  七 七 insurance companies, including  三 一 non-life insurance companies,  一 九 life insurance companies, two reinsurance companies,  二 四 insurance brokerage companies and a branch of a foreign non-life insurance company.

Data from the Vietnam Insurance Association showed by the end of May  二0 二 二, the total insurance premium revenue of the whole insurance market reached nearly VNĐ 九 四. 二 八 trillion, up  一 六 per cent over the same period last year. Of which, the revenue of the non-life insurance market was at VNĐ 二 七. 五 六 trillion, up  一 三. 一 per cent over the same period the previous year, and the revenue of the life insurance market was at VNĐ 六 六. 七 二 trillion, up  一 七. 二 per cent.

Analysts say Việt Nam's insurance market still has a lot of room for development, thanks to the support from the stable macro-economy.

SSI Research forecast revenues from insurance premiums could rise by  一 八 per cent to VNĐ 二 五 六 trillion this year, driven by the recovery in demand and growing online insurance and collaboration with insurtech firms.

Ngô Việt Trung, Director of the MoF’s Insurance Management and Supervision Department, said Việt Nam's population was in the golden age, which creates an opportunity to develop many life insurance products such as mixed insurance and retirement insurance.

Besides, non-life insurance products had many opportunities to develop thanks to economic growth and rising investment, construction and trade.

However, experts say besides the new policy, the insurance market needs transparency to overcome unfair competition and fraud for sustained development.

According to Trung, Việt Nam is facing many challenges in developing its insurance market despite the positive prospects. Besides the unprofessional distribution channel of insurance agents, the insurance market still sees unfair competition, lack of cooperation and mutual support in sharing information among insurers to fight against fraud, which causes decreasing competitiveness in the whole insurance market.

Nguyễn Thanh Nga, director of the Vietnam Insurance Development Institute, attributed the shortcomings to the lack of a database for the entire insurance market.

Currently, the Việt Nam Insurance Association had built a database for vehicle insurance, but insurance companies had not voluntarily shared their information, which causes statistics to be incomplete and inaccurate, Nga said, adding that the insurance agency management software system also had only the agent data of life insurance companies.

Besides, insurance companies are currently using different information technology systems, so there is no co妹妹on data connection, which causes insurance fraud to develop, according to Nga.

The industry needed to urgently build database infrastructure, she said. — VNS