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In brief

The National Assembly of Vietnam has passed the new Insurance Business Law (“New Law“) on 16 June 2022 at the meeting of the National Assembly. The New Law has provided significant changes to the Current Law1 and will have a major impact on the development of Vietnam’s insurance market.

The New law will come into effect from 1 January 2023, except for certain provisions on risk-based capital and intervention measures that will take effect from 1 January 2028.


Key takeaways

The New Law has provided various significant changes, with the following highlights:

  • The applicable scope of the New Law is clearer than that of the Current Law.
  • There will be certain changes to the scope of compulsory insurance products: The New Law has removed certain insurances on professional liabilities in the legal advisory profession and the insurance brokerage profession. The New Law does not allow insurers to deny selling compulsory insurances upon requests of policyholders who are qualified to purchase compulsory insurances.
  • On insurance policies, the fundamental principles (such as: utmost good faith, insurable interest, indemnity, subrogation) are more clearly provided in the New Law. These principles are already in place in Vietnam practice, but they have not yet specified clearly in the Current Law as fundamental principles.
  • There is a new provision on temporary life insurance, allowing the insurer to provide temporary insurance to a policyholder when the insurer has received an insurance application and the policyholder has paid the estimated insurance premium.
  • There is a new proposed change to the operation of the insurers (i.e., provision of insurance auxiliary services and other activities directly related to the insurance business) and the New Law expands the cases where an insurer is allowed to concurrently sell different insurance products.
  • The New Law recognizes the investment from a financial and insurance group, of which the investor may not be an insurer but in the group has an entity doing insurance business.
  • This will be the first time a regulation on insurance business provides specific regulations and restrictions on outsourcing activities in the insurance sector.
  • It will provide a mechanism for insurers to sell insurance via online channels.
  • New proposed changes applicable to the insurance agency activities will (i) set out provisions on the principles in the operation of insurance agencies, rights and obligations of parties in the insurance agency operation which are currently provided in the decree level, (ii) separate types of insurance agency certificates corresponding to each insurance product, and (iii) insurance agency certificate issued before the effective date of the new law which will continue taking effective until 31 December 2025.
  • Capital adequacy ratio will be based on the actual capital and the risk-based capital.
  • The New Law contains principles on technical reserves of insurers and/or reinsurers.
  • There are other changes, such as foreign ownership cap, the time to apply provisions on management of risk, capital and solvency, information disclosure by insurers and on a dispute resolution body.

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1 Law No. Law No. 24/2000/QH10 on Insurance Business passed by the National Assembly on 9 December 2000, as amended and supplemented by Law No. 61/2010/QH12 on amendment and supplement of a number of articles of the Law on Insurance Business passed by the National Assembly on 24 November 2010 and Law No. 42/2019/QH14 on amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Insurance Business and the Law on Intellectual Property (“Current Law“).

Author

Oanh Nguyen is a partner in Baker McKenzie Vietnam and has been practising capital markets, banking and finance, M&A, and commercial law for more than 25 years. Knowledgeable about all aspects of investments, she advises on all types of transactions, ranging from investment structures to project structures and their related financing. She has focused on public M&A matters, including major IPOs and projects finance.

Oanh is a respected presenter in the areas of finance and capital markets. In addition, she has lectured at the Ho Chi Minh City Bar Association. She also serves as a legal advisor to the Capital Market Committee of Ho Chi Minh City American Chamber of Commerce.

Author

Thanh Hai Nguyen is a partner based in Baker McKenzie's Hanoi office. He has been serving as Chair of the Legal Committee of the American Chamber of Commerce in Hanoi (AmCham Hanoi) since April 2017, as well as an active member in the Vietnam Business Forum (VBF)'s Power & Energy Working Group and Investment & Trade Working Group. He is an admitted lawyer in Vietnam and a member of the Hanoi Bar Association.

Author

Viet Trung Nguyen is an Associate in Baker McKenzie, Hanoi office.

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