All accusations of fraud will be examined: Manulife chairman

All customers complaining about Manulife to authorities would be approached for further discussions, he said at a press briefing Wednesday.

“We have sent letters and set up meetings with these customers. We are working to speed up the process.”

Where there was evidence of a salesperson making false claims, Manulife had punished the person and also reported to authorities.

For customers affected in such cases, the insurer had offered to cancel the contracts or replace it with a different policy.

But while in most cases there was not enough evidence to accuse the company of flouting regulations, it would still offer solutions to customers, including lowering premiums.

Records of calls the company possessed, in which salespersons congratulated customers for signing contracts, showed no unusual signs.

Most of the accusations were related to Saigon Commercial Bank, which had faced a public backlash in September last year.

Many contracts were signed in 2020 and 2021, but the customers did not have any complaints then.

In recent months hundreds of customers have accused Manulife and SCB of purporting insurance policies to be deposits with higher interest rates.

They said the bank’s employees had claimed they were putting money in a deposit and would get an insurance policy as a gift, only finding out later there was no deposit and they had actually bought an insurance policy requiring regular payment of premiums.

Shah said the controversy had a negative impact on Manulife and the insurance industry, and apologized to affected customers.

He promised that Manulife would review and strengthen its sales department, and not tolerate any wrongdoing or dishonesty by staff.