Insurance plays an important role in the development of society, Recently, insurance activities and insurance products have also received the attention of many individuals and businesses. To contribute to promoting the healthy development of the insurance market as well as insurance businesses, on November 2, 2023, the Ministry of Finance issued Circular 67/2023/TT-BTC (“Circular 67”) guiding Guide to the Insurance Business Law 2023 and Decree 46/2023/ND-CP with many notable contents. According to ATA's assessment, the regulations in Circular 67 are strict, binding higher responsibilities of insurance enterprises towards insurance buyers, contributing to transparency in the insurance market and better protection of insurance buyers. Here, ATA will analyze and present notable contents specified in Circular 67 as follows:
I. Regulations on providing insurance services and products in the online environment
1. Limit the provision of insurance services and products in the online environment
Accordingly, Circular 67 allows enterprises, branches of foreign non-life insurance enterprises, mutual organizations providing micro insurance, insurance broker enterprises, and insurance agents (hereinafter referred to as "Insurance Enterprises") can carry out all or part of the process of providing insurance services and products in the network environment for one or several insurance products as follows:
- Micro insurance, health insurance, death insurance with a term of more than 01 year or 01 year or less without requiring direct appraisal and risk assessment before entering into a supply contract in the form of regulatory formula;
- Health insurance, death insurance with a term of 01 year or less, motor vehicle insurance, trip and tourism insurance are provided in the prescribed form.
In case of implementing part of the process of providing insurance services and products in the online environment for products other than the above products, consulting activities must be performed directly or in the form of a recorded call between the Insurance Company and the insurance buyer.
2. Obligation to notify the provision of insurance services and products on the online environment of Insurance Enterprises
Insurance Enterprises are obliged to notify the Ministry of Finance about the provision of insurance services and products in the online environment as follows:
- Within 07 working days from the time of providing insurance services and products in the online environment: Announce information about businesses, services, insurance products, and form of providing organization. and other information related to the provision of insurance services and products in the online environment.
- Within 90 days from the effective date of Circular 67: Announce information about insurance services and products being provided in the network environment before the effective date of this Circular.
II. Insurance rules, conditions, and terms of life insurance and health insurance products must be reviewed and edited to meet regulations before July 1, 2025
Circular 67 provides detailed instructions on some contents of insurance rules, conditions and terms for the following issues:
- Permanent total disability benefits;
- Waiting time ;
- Pre-existing disease;
- The advance from the surrender value;
- Restore contract validity;
- Rules, conditions, and insurance terms of investment-linked insurance contracts and pension insurance contracts.
Accordingly, Insurance Enterprises continue to deploy life insurance and health insurance products approved by the Ministry of Finance before July 1, 2013 (effective date of Decree No. 46/2023 on guiding the implementation of a number of articles of the Law on Insurance Business) must complete the review and editing of insurance rules, conditions and terms of corresponding products to meet regulations in Circular 67 before July 1, 2025.
III. Clarifying the obligation of the Insurance Enterprise to provide documents when entering into an insurance policy
Circular 67 provides detailed regulations on the documents required to be provided by Insurance Enterprises when entering into an insurance policy, including:
- Insurance rules, conditions, and terms.
- Summary documents of insurance rules, conditions, and terms.
- Sales illustration documents for life insurance products.
- Insurance certificates, insurance application forms, or other forms as prescribed by law.
- Insurance request forms, questionnaires related to the insured risks and insured subjects.
These documents constitute part of the insurance policy and must adhere to the regulations of Circular 67.
For life insurance policies, the consideration period for participation in insurance is counted from the moment the client confirms the receipt of the aforementioned documents.
IV. Supplementing tightening regulations for insurance agents that are credit institutions and foreign bank branches
In order to prevent banks from selling investment-linked insurance with loans, Circular 67 stipulates that credit institutions are not allowed to advise, introduce, offer, or arrange the conclusion of investment-linked insurance contracts to clients within 60 days before and after 60 days from the date of disbursement of the entire loan.
In addition to the mentioned contents, Circular 67 also provides various guidelines related to mandatory provisions in life insurance policies, health insurance policies, and regulations on the insurance business activities of Insurance Enterprises. These encompass issues such as product insurance fee calculation methods, reserve establishment methods, separation of owner's equity and insurance fee sources, surplus sharing principles, etc. For detailed information, please refer to the official text of Circular 67.
Circular 67 takes effect from November 2, 2023.
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