National Assembly Delegate of Nghe An: Appraisal of insurance contracts to protect buyers

On the morning of October 25, continuing the working program at the 2nd Session, the National Assembly discussed online and in groups a number of draft laws.

Panorama of the meeting at the National Assembly House on the morning of October 25. Photo: Quochoi.vn

Discussing in groups about the draft Law on Insurance Business (amended), the Nghe An delegation had many comments on a number of articles and clauses of the draft. Delegate Thai Van Thanh - Member of the Provincial Party Executive Committee, Director of the Department of Education and Training suggested that it is necessary to clarify the necessity of micro-insurance, its impact on socio-economics, and social benefits, because in essence, it can be seen that this is a type of insurance to support poor, near-poor, and vulnerable households in society.

Along with that, the delegate also suggested that it is necessary to unify the terminology between some provisions of the draft law, specifically the use of the term “third person” or “third party”. If the term “third person” is used, this concept should be added; on the other hand, it is necessary to clarify and specify some provisions in the draft law to avoid framework law because the content is assigning a lot of authority to the Government to regulate.

Delegate Thai Van Thanh - Director of Nghe An Department of Education and Training spoke at the discussion. Photo: Thanh Duy

Delegate Vo Thi Minh Sinh - Member of the Provincial Party Standing Committee, Chairman of the Vietnam Fatherland Front Committee of Nghe An province, commented that currently, insurance contracts are all prepared for the insurance buyer to sign. Although the draft law has clearly stated provisions: Insurance companies have the obligation to ask the insurance buyer to carefully read the rules, conditions, and terms of the insurance and clearly explain to the insurance buyer the benefits of the terms.

However, according to delegate Vo Thi Minh Sinh, there is still a need for a group of experts to appraise and control insurance contracts prepared by insurance businesses to protect the rights and interests of individual insurance participants, especially those who have little opportunity to learn about the law and its terms and conditions.

Delegate Vo Thi Minh Sinh - Member of the Provincial Party Standing Committee, Chairwoman of the Vietnam Fatherland Front Committee of Nghe An province spoke at the discussion. Photo: Thanh Duy

Along with that, regarding insurance agents, the Chairman of the Vietnam Fatherland Front Committee of Nghe An province also requested to clarify the responsibilities of insurance agents because recently, there have been many cases where situations or incidents occurred related to the liquidation or invalidation of insurance contracts, the responsibilities of insurance agents were almost unclear, only expressed in the sense of intermediary brokers and transferring responsibility to insurance businesses.

Mr. Tran Nhat Minh - full-time delegate of the National Assembly Delegation of Nghe An commented: The draft law stipulates compulsory insurance types but does not include sanctions to force people to comply. Therefore, according to the delegate, the law should have an article or a clause to stipulate sanctions for the application of these compulsory insurance types.

Regarding the implementation of compulsory insurance contracts, delegate Tran Nhat Minh also said that through contact with many voters, there are cases where insurance companies have difficulty compensating for damages to third parties or to insurance buyers, so insurance contracts need to have binding provisions for compensating for damages for compulsory insurance types.

Delegate Tran Nhat Minh - full-time delegate of Nghe An Delegation spoke at the discussion. Photo: Thanh Duy

Regarding the establishment of insurance businesses, citing the draft law, delegate Thai Thi An Chung - Deputy Head of the Provincial National Assembly Delegation said: The Ministry of Finance has the authority to grant, re-grant, adjust, revoke licenses for establishment and operation, and suspend the operation of insurance businesses. At the same time, after being granted a license for establishment, the business must continue to register its business according to the Enterprise Law. Therefore, the delegate proposed to combine the license for establishment and the insurance business registration certificate into one in the spirit of administrative procedure reform.

The Deputy Head of the National Assembly Delegation of Nghe An province also said that the Law on Insurance Business (amended) needs to supplement regulations on the educational, professional and cultural qualifications of individuals working as insurance agents to improve the quality of insurance business activities; at the same time, there should be regulations binding the responsibility of insurance companies to terminate the activities of insurance agents if they do not operate within a specific period of time, to avoid the situation of many insurance agents but little activity.

Delegate Thai Thi An Chung - Deputy Head of the National Assembly Delegation of Nghe An spoke at the discussion. Photo: Thanh Duy

Delegate Vi Van Son - Member of the Provincial Party Executive Committee, Head of the Ethnic Minorities Committee of Nghe An province, assessed that this is a draft law on a rather special type of business. Insurance business in our country is only a few decades old compared to the world's hundreds of years of history. Therefore, the experience of State management and people's experience is not much, even there are individuals participating in insurance but still have a very vague understanding of the contract.

Therefore, delegates suggested that it is necessary to conduct careful research to build a quality law that comprehensively protects the rights and interests of insurance participants, as well as helps state management agencies carry out management work more effectively.

Delegate Vi Van Son - Head of the Ethnic Minorities Committee of Nghe An province spoke at the discussion. Photo: Thanh Duy

Previously, on the morning of October 22, presenting the Proposal on the promulgation of the Law on Insurance Business (amended), Minister of Finance Ho Duc Phoc affirmed the necessity of developing a draft Law on Insurance Business (amended) to perfect legal regulations on insurance business; handle conflicts, overlaps and inadequacies of the Law on Insurance Business with legal documents issued by the National Assembly, ensuring the consistency and synchronization of the legal system; strongly reform administrative procedures in insurance business activities combined with comprehensive reform of specialized management, inspection and examination work, ensuring effective implementation of state management and coordination between state management agencies in detecting and promptly and strictly handling violations of the law on insurance business; protect the legitimate rights and interests of investors, customers, the safety of the entire system, and reduce social costs.

In his review report, Chairman of the National Assembly's Economic Committee Vu Hong Thanh said that the Economic Committee agreed with the necessity of amending the Law on Insurance Business to institutionalize the Party's policies and guidelines; overcome limitations and shortcomings after more than 20 years of implementing the 2000 Law on Insurance Business, ensure the unity and synchronization of the legal system; create and develop a safe, transparent, sustainable, effective insurance market, approaching international practices, enhancing competitiveness and, together with the monetary-credit market and the stock market, becoming important capital channels for the economy.

On the morning of October 25, the National Assembly discussed online the draft Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Criminal Procedure Code. The Chief Justice of the Supreme People's Procuracy spoke to explain and clarify a number of issues raised by National Assembly deputies.