In recent months insurance companies like AIA and Prudential have been recruiting hundreds of sales staff to work at VietinBank, VPBank, Maritime Bank and other similar institutions.

A spokesperson for Prudential Vietnam, which has exclusive partnerships with eight banks, said that the company plans to recruit an addition of 235 bancassurance staff by the end of this year, and that recruitment for the whole year will rise 25 percent over last year.

Industry insiders said that the recruitment increase is happening as banks seek to increase revenues from selling insurance products as credit growth has been hit by the Covid-19 pandemic. Vietnam’s credit growth was 245 percent in the first half of 2020 the lowest since 2016 according to the General Statistics Office.

Banks, meanwhile, have seen their revenues increase thanks to bancassurance. VIB, for example, saw revenues from insurance in the first half rise 23 percent year-on-year to VND536 billion ($23 million).

Ngo Trung Dung, deputy chairman of the Insurance Association of Vietnam, said that life insurance sales in Vietnam via bancassurance rose 20 percent year-on-year in the first half of 2020.

Prudential Vietnam announced an even higher growth rate of over 50 percent in the same period.

Although lenders like Techcombank and Sacombank are using their own staff to sell insurance products, some experts suggest the use of professionally trained insurance company staff more professionally trained to ensure more success in sales.