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US insurer says Vietnam operations safe
The Vietnam operations of embattled insurer American International Group Inc. are healthy and customers can be assured of its solvency, according to its chief.
Jamie Rains, AIG Life Vietnam’s general director, said recent developments in the US would have no impact on customers in Vietnam.
Insurance companies in Vietnam are closely monitored by the Ministry of Finance, he said.
AIG Life Vietnam “far exceeds the regulatory requirement” on solvency, he said in a statement sent to Thanh Nien Daily Thursday.
The company said it had total assets of VND2.72 trillion (US$160 million) and investments of around VND2.4 trillion as of December 31, 2008.
Rains said more than 80 percent of the company’s investments are in government bonds and the rest in corporate bonds, term deposits, and policy loans.
AIG, which got its fourth government bailout in the US this week after posting a $61.7 billion quarterly loss, last month put together all its AIA units in the Asia-Pacific region, including AIG Life Vietnam, to form the AIA group.
The AIA group has a combined solvency ratio of more than 200 percent of the regulatory requirement as of November 30, Bloomberg quoted the company as saying in an e-mailed statement Thursday.
Total assets are currently more than $60 billion, it said, without providing earlier figures.
Rains said the company had more than 234,000 valid policies by the end of last year.
The company expects strong growth this year in Vietnam, where less than 10 percent of people have life insurance, he said.
Minh Quang
Thanh nien
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