A newcomer in the life insurance market since entering in January 2022, Shinhan Life has consolidated its position in the Vietnamese market with a line-up of reasonably priced protective insurance products, enabling most people access insurance. Lee Eui-Chul, General Director of Shinhan Life Vietnam, speaks to Việt Nam News about the company’s achievements after more than ahalf year of operations and their development plans for the near future.

Can you tell us about Shinhan Life’s performance in half a year since it came to the Vietnamese market?

When Shinhan Life initially entered Viet Nam , we brought with us objectives and expectations for the Vietnamese market. After eight months we have confirmed our initial viewpoint that Vietnamis a very promising market. However, due to Shinhan Life's short presence in Vietnam, we are unable to determine our exact position in this market.

With our efforts and understanding of Vietnamese people’ needs, we believe Shinhan Life will gain a foothold in the Vietnamese market in the near future, particularly with its protection insurance products. We trust, and have good reason to believe, we can dominate this segment.

Can you share about the various insurance products Shinhan Life has offered in the Vietnam market so far? What are the benefits that your life insurance product lines offerringcustomers?

Understanding that Vietnamese parents are particularly concerned about their children's education and health, Shinhan Life has developed a free blood cancer product for children right after entering the market. We also launched education-related products and an education combined with savings product to help families protect and prepare for their children's future.

In the Vietnamese market, if too many savings benefits are combined with protective insurance products, the premium will rise, making it difficult for many people to access. In order to make insurance more accessible to everyone, we have prioritized protective insurance products with affordable monthly premiums. I believe this will contribute to the success of Shinhan Life's products in the Vietnamese market.

In future we will also research to bring to the market new insurance products with a clear separation of protective and savings benefits to offer customers a clearer choice that suits their purpose and plan. At the same time, we also hope to launch our Universal Life product in the near future.

At this point Vietnam's life insurance market has not yet regained its growth rate. What will Shinhan Life do to achieve the goal in the first year and accelerate in the following years?

In the first half of 2022 the Vietnamese life insurance industry faced severe challenges. However, it must also be acknowledged that the market grew rapidly during the previous year, particularly in the bancassurance sector. This segment will eventually slow down.

For Shinhan Life to achieve its goals in the Vietnamese market, from now until the end of the year we have to strengthen the bancassurance segment. Our two critical partners in the same group, Shinhan Bank and Shinhan Finance, have provided us with significant support and acted as a bridge to help us acquire our first customers. However, we need to develop other distribution channels to expand and develop faster in future. To safeguard more Vietnamese customers with Shinhan Life's insurance products, we have begun experimenting with a telemarketing distribution channel.

From the perspective of an insurance professional, I believe that in future Vietnamese will start looking at their actual needs and care more about protection products. We will still focus on protective insurance products with reasonable fees so that everyone can participate. After all, the core value of insurance is protection.

It seems that Shinhan Life is quite focused on CSR activities, especially for children with blood cancer. Can you tell us more about this?

Shinhan Life's major priority in Vietnam has always been the promotion of social responsibility and community engagement. We seek to provide the people of Vietnam, especially children, with the essential protection needed to enable them to achieve their aspirations with happiness and self-assurance.

It is true that Shinhan Life has a strong interest in charitable efforts for children, particularly those with blood cancer. The first product Shinhan Life launched in the Vietnamese market was a blood cancer protection insurance product for children, which we give completely free of charge. Thus, we want to increase awareness of this product so that more families sign up for it, thereby protecting more children from this dangerousdisease.

During the first two rounds of CSR activities at the City Children's Hospital, we donated a total of 300 million VND to support treatment expensesfor 15 needy children at the department of clinical hematology.

In the upcoming time, we hope to expand other areas where impoverished children require assistance. In the coming years we also plan to implement our CSR activities to include many more beneficiaries such as elderly and grown-ups to help a larger number of people.