Generali Vietnam head becomes Manulife Vietnam CEO

Canadian-invested life insurer Manulife Vietnam has appointed Tina Nguyen, who has nearly 20 years of experience in the sector, as its new CEO.

Nguyen will report directly to Phil Witherington, president and CEO of Manulife Asia, the company said in a Monday release.

Before taking the latest assignment, she had served as the CEO of Italian-invested life insurer Generali Vietnam from December 2015 to this July, according to her Linkedin profile.

Earlier, she was the chief customer officer at British life insurer Prudential Vietnam. Altogether, she spent more than 11 years at Prudential Vietnam in various managerial positions, including chief strategy officer and finance director.

Before Prudential Vietnam, she served as an associate manager in auditing at EY, and financial controller at Texas Electric Cooperatives in Austin, Texas in the U.S.

Nguyen takes charge at Manulife Vietnam at a time when the life insurance sector in Vietnam is caught up in its worst client confidence crisis, mostly due to bancassurance activities.

Regarding Manulife Vietnam’s bancassurance services via Saigon Commercial Bank, company chairman Sachin Shah said at a press briefing in Ho Chi Minh City this April that his firm would resolve all customer complaints.

He said his firm’s solutions might include lowering insurance premiums.

The Ministry of Finance said June 30 that life insurers Prudential, MB Ageas, Sun Life and BIDV Metlife have been found guilty of bancassurance violations and will have to pay administrative fines to fix their wrongdoings.

Many irregularities involving banking staff have been found in the sales of insurance policies. These included the provision of misleading information and not strictly following the ministry’s insurance premium guidelines.