Customer accuses insurance consultant of dishonesty, Bank responds

On May 12, VietNamNet published an article “Customer accuses bank employee of enticing her to buy insurance with “higher interest than savings””, reflecting on Ms. Nguyen Thi Bich Dao (born 1983, Ha Dong, Hanoi) signing a contract to participate in Prudential’s “Pru-Flexible Investment” insurance package through the consultation of an employee of the International Commercial Joint Stock Bank (VIB ) Xa La Branch.

The contract took effect from March 2020 with a fee of 30 million VND/year. By October 2022, after a series of controversies related to insurance contracts sold through banks, Ms. Dao reviewed the contract and said that the contract content was different from what she had been previously advised. She did not receive a higher interest rate than savings as the consultant had promised.

After submitting the complaint, Ms. Dao worked with the bank twice but so far the insurance contract has not been terminated as she requested.

Responding to the above case, the International Commercial Joint Stock Bank said that in order to have an objective assessment of the customer's feedback, the bank has compared, investigated, and verified internally along with explanations from related personnel.

The representative of the International Bank said that Ms. Dao's complaint about "consultants abusing trust, being dishonest, or customers not being properly advised about insurance products" was not well-founded.

Accordingly, the bank has requested Ms. Dao to provide additional valid evidence demonstrating the employee's violations. However, up to now, the bank has not received any evidence from the customer to be able to consider support.

The bank also denied the information that it proposed to support customers with 15 million VND, equivalent to half a year of insurance premiums if the contract is canceled. This information is not the bank's official opinion.

*One of the two insurance contracts that Ms. Nguyen Thi Bich Dao signed with Prudential is the Pru-Flexible Investment contract.*

Regarding the fact that the consultant admitted to advising the customer that the insurance package had a higher interest rate than the savings deposit (in the presence of two colleagues), the bank said that during the consultation process as well as during the working sessions between the two parties on March 4, March 11, and March 27, they did not confirm with the customer that the interest rate of the insurance contract was higher than the savings interest rate.

Consultants and staff have clarified and explained many times that the nature of the interest rate on investment funds in the insurance contract that customers participate in will depend on the market situation and the actual business results of that investment fund on an annual basis.

Regarding the customer's request to terminate the insurance contract and refund the 3-year insurance premium paid, the bank said that there was no basis to determine the consultant's violation, so the customer did not fall into one of the termination cases according to Article 23 of the Law on Insurance Business, the bank had no basis to terminate the insurance contract and refund the insurance premium as requested by the customer.

In response to the above responses from the bank, Ms. Nguyen Thi Bich Dao expressed her indignation.

She said she provided additional evidence to prove that the bank's approval process was "problematic" such as: the insurance contract had the customer's address and marital status wrong.

Regarding the proposal to "support 15 million VND" for customers, Ms. Dao affirmed that this was the proposal from the leader of Xa La branch, International Bank, during the second working session.

“Because I trusted her, I did not record the time the bank staff gave advice. During a recent working session, I recorded Ms. Huong (bank staff - PV) admitting that there was this conversation (about consulting on higher interest rates than savings deposits - PV). I knew in advance that there would be a denial, so I determined from the beginning that the issue was not about getting the money back. I just wanted to show (point out) how the bank denied the incident,” Ms. Dao said.

A customer accused a bank employee of tricking her into buying insurance with 'higher interest than savings' . While saving at VIB, a female customer was invited by a bank employee to buy two more Prudential insurance packages, including an "investment-linked" package, which left her in a state of both laughter and tears.

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