Viet Nam remains a key life insurance market in Asia, the Insurance Association of Viet Nam told a meeting in HCM City on Monday.

It reported that there were nearly 14 million life insurance contracts as of the end of 2022, a 5 per cent increase from the previous year.

But premiums rose by 12 per cent to over VND178 trillion (US$7.6 billion).

Of the contracts, 995,000 were through bancassurance, which accounted for 46 per cent of the premiums.

Life insurance claims last year topped VND44 trillion ($1.9 billion), a 34 per cent increase.

"The life insurance industry plays an important role in Viet Nam's economy, providing long-term protection to individuals and families,” Ngo Trung Dung, the association’s deputy general secretary, said.

“The general difficulties of the economy and people's questions about life insurance recently do cause some anxiety.”

He promised that the association would work closely with insurers to provide veracious information to customers and improve the latter’s service quality.

One of the solutions the two are planning is to review agents’ training to improve quality, he said.

The consulting, sales and appraisal processes would continue to be improved, he said.

“Our goal is to ensure that customers have full access to the best insurance products and services with clear, transparent insurance contracts that meet their needs.”

The life insurance market has 730,000 agents, he said.

Last year over 3,000 were fined and had their certificates withdrawn, taking the number in the last three years to 9,000, he said.

The association and insurers were also committed to handling customers’ complaints quickly, fairly and transparently, he added. — VNS