Many insurance companies did not pay adequate attention to the quality of training to consultants and controlling quality of agents. (File photo) According to Pham Thu Phuong, Deputy Director ofthe Insurance Supervisory Authority under the Ministry of Finance, the lifeinsurance market must be put under scrutiny, especially quality of consultancy,customer care service and claim settlement.
Many insurance companies did not pay adequateattention to the quality of training to consultants and controlling quality ofagents. The claim settlement also caused frustration, she said.
Although bancassurance was considered to bringsignificant benefits, problems arose during the implementation due to the loosemanagement, which caused a stir among insurance buyers, Phuong said, addingthat most of the frustration came from buyers through bancassurance.
According to Tran Hong Nguyen, Deputy Chairwomanof the Law Committee of the National Assembly, problems of the life insurancemarket were a big lesson to all relevant parties, including State managementagencies, insurance companies and banks as well as insurance buyers.
The management agencies should keep a closer watchon the market and improve market forecast to have timely measures to cope with arisingproblems before it went out of control, she said.
For insurance companies and commercial banks, itwas critical for them to improve the training quality of their consultants andagents, not only sales skills but also knowledge about insurance products andprofessional ethics.
When insurance did not go in the right direction,the consequences were transparent as people would turn away from insurance andit was the insurance companies who would suffer, she said.
“Insurance companies must pay attention tocontrolling and operation of consultancy of agents. It is the first importantthing.”
Insurance companies and banks should cooperate in trainingtogether with a clear supervision mechanism and accountability.
The settlement of claims should also be timelierand more satisfactory, she said. In addition, insurance buyers should study theterms of insurance contracts carefully.
Ngo Trung Dung, Deputy General Secretary of theVietnam Insurance Association, said that existing scandalous claims should besolved promptly and thoroughly based on the established laws and signedcontracts to consolidate trust in the insurance life market.
Communications should also be enhanced to raiseawareness about life insurance.
It was also necessary to have the base for handlingwhen consultants or agents provided the wrong consultancies, he said.
The draft decree guiding the implementation of theLaw on Insurance Business said that insurance companies were responsible forrecording the consultancies and keeping the audio for five years asevidence for handling disputes. This solution was being applied in Hong Kong,he said.
According to Phuong, protecting the rights ofinsurance buyers was also a top priority.
She said that there would be decrees and circularsdetailing the management on the consultancy of insurance agents, especiallybancassurance.
Inspections would be increased this year to ensuremarket discipline, she stressed.
To date, there were 78 insurance companies and onebranch of a foreign non-life insurance company operating in Vietnam. Theinsurance market saw an average annual growth of 205 per year./.
VNA
