New regulations on selling insurance through banks

The Ministry of Finance has just issued Circular 67/2023/TT-BTC guiding a number of articles of the Law on Insurance Business, Decree No. 46/2023/ND-CP detailing the implementation of a number of articles of the Law on Insurance Business.

Circular 67/2023/TT-BTC includes: 7 chapters, 62 articles and 13 appendices. In which, Section 1, Chapter V provides specific details on insurance agents.

Accordingly, the circular has amended and supplemented the current regulations, specifically: increasing insurance agent commissions for life insurance, periodic payment insurance, mixed insurance; at the same time changing the first year commission rate of general insurance, unit-linked insurance; regulating the bonus level, support for insurance agents and other benefits according to the agreement in the insurance agency contract.

Must set up a separate trading desk

Accordingly, at each branch and transaction office of a credit institution, a separate transaction counter must be established to carry out insurance agency activities, separate from other business areas of the credit institution.

At the same time, Circular 67/2023/TT-BTC clearly stipulates that during the process of consulting on insurance products, insurance agents or employees in the agency organization directly performing insurance agency activities must provide complete and accurate information about insurance products to the insurance buyer, using documents provided by the insurance company or branch of a foreign non-life insurance company.

On the other hand, for complex insurance products such as investment-linked insurance products, Circular No. 67/2023/TT-BTC has added a regulation requiring insurance agents to record the insurance consulting process.

In addition, the circular adds requirements for documents in insurance contracts. For long-term life insurance products with a cash value, the insurance company is responsible for providing a paper summary document to the insurance buyer and must have the insurance buyer's confirmation to help the insurance buyer more easily access information, better understand the product, rights and obligations when participating in a life insurance contract before deciding to enter into a contract.

The 21-day consideration period for insurance participation is determined from the time the policyholder confirms receipt of the above documents.

Clear communication between insurance products and credit products

To improve the level of protection of customers' right to proactive participation, Circular 67/2023/TT-BTC has added a provision that credit institutions are not allowed to advise, introduce, offer, or arrange the conclusion of investment-linked insurance contracts for customers within 60 days before and after 60 days from the date of disbursement of the entire loan.

In addition, Circular 67/2023/TT-BTC continues to have regulations to strengthen the responsibility of supervising and ensuring the quality of insurance sales activities through banks.

Specifically, Circular 67/2023/TT-BTC has added a number of regulations to further strengthen the responsibility of enterprises in monitoring and controlling the quality of insurance sales activities through banks.

For example, insurance companies must conduct periodic monitoring and inspection to ensure the quality of insurance product introduction and consultation activities of agency staff, promptly coordinate with agency staff to inspect, review, and handle complaints from insurance buyers related to consultation by agency staff, and handle violations (if any).

Circular 67/2023/TT-BTC requires banks operating as agents to clearly inform customers that insurance products distributed through credit institutions are not products of credit institutions, and that participation in insurance products is not a mandatory condition for using other services and products of credit institutions.

Wisdom

Source