Manulife Vietnam repays over $34 million in light of accusations

Lieutenant General To An Xo, the official spokesperson for Vietnam’s Ministry of Public Security, addressed inquiries from local media during a routine government press conference on June 3. It concerned the ongoing developments in the case involving Manulife Vietnam and Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) and accusations of illicitly transforming customers' savings deposits into life insurance agreements.

Lieutenant General Xo disclosed that the police have received a total of 579 complaints and have taken decisive action in response to each one.

According to local media Dantri, Lieutenant General Xo shared that as of May 31, Manulife Vietnam had received a staggering 6,060 complaints pertaining to insurance contracts. Out of this substantial number, Manulife has successfully addressed and resolved 3,553 of the complaints.

"Manulife has demonstrated its commitment to resolving this issue by refunding a large sum of over VND800 billion ($34 million). Additionally, Manulife Vietnam is currently working towards resolving 2,507 contracts that are subject to complaint," Lieutenant General Xo declared.

Furthermore, the Ministry of Public Security has taken proactive measures by urging the Ministry of Finance to mandate that Manulife Vietnam and associated organisations accept customer complaint letters individually, without allowing customers to congregate in large gatherings.

To guarantee the security and order of the complaint reception points, the Ministry of Public Security has instructed local law enforcement agencies to collaborate closely with Manulife Vietnam.

Previously, Lieutenant General Xo revealed that numerous individuals had submitted complaints to relevant authorities accusing Manulife Vietnam and SCB of wrongdoing.

The allegations state that some customers who had savings deposits at SCB were provided with misleading advice by SCB staff when it came time to settle their accounts, cited Dantri. They were encouraged to transfer their savings deposits into high-yield investment plans offered by SCB. Although presented as similar to savings deposits, these plans were actually insurance contracts with Manulife Vietnam.

When Manulife requested the policyholders to continue making insurance premium payments, these individuals discovered that they had unknowingly signed life insurance contracts instead of savings investment plans as advised by SCB staff.

As a result, these customers were unable to make withdrawals. If they failed to make further payments within 60 days, their previous investment amounts would be forfeited.