Vietnam firms lose sight of rising insurable risk costs

Only 17.9% use quantitative analytics to test scenarios and programme options.

Nearly half of organisations in Vietnam say their total cost of insurable risk is rising, whilst fewer than half measure that cost.

According to Aon’s 2025 Global Risk Management Survey, 47.4% of Vietnamese respondents said their total cost of insurable risk was increasing. 

Another 15.8% said costs were unchanged, 10.5% reported a decrease and 26.3% did not know how their costs were changing.

Only 46% of Vietnamese organisations measure their total cost of insurable risk, compared with 67.9% of respondents globally. 

The measure covers costs such as insurance premiums, third-party fees, retained losses within deductibles or above insurance limits, captive insurance costs and internal expenses.

Insurance brokers remain the main source of advice for Vietnamese companies reviewing their insurance arrangements. 

Some 89.3% of respondents in Vietnam said they use broker advice to assess whether their insurance programmes are delivering value, compared with 81.1% globally.

Senior management judgement and comparisons with previous insurance programmes were each used by 57.1% of Vietnamese respondents. 

Insurer advice was used by 39.3%, whilst 25% used industry benchmarking. Only 17.9% used quantitative analytics to test different scenarios and insurance programme options.

The findings come as Vietnamese businesses report losses from several risks that can affect insurance programmes.

Property damage ranked fifth amongst the country’s current top risks, with 75% of respondents who identified the risk saying their organisation had suffered a loss from it. 

Business interruption and supply chain failure each resulted in losses for 33.3% of respondents identifying those risks, whilst 25% reported losses linked to vendor management or third-party risk.

However, Aon said insurance cannot address all of the risks companies face. Vendor management, supply chain resilience and regulatory compliance are amongst the priority risks in Vietnam that may not be fully dealt with through insurance. 

Companies therefore need to decide which risks can be transferred to insurers, which should be retained and how exposures that cannot be insured should be managed.

Risk management systems also remain less developed amongst Vietnamese respondents than the global average. Formal risk oversight was in place at 46.7% of Vietnamese organisations, compared with 61.4% globally. 

Only 20% used a structured, enterprise-wide process to identify risks, against 46.9% of respondents globally.

Use of captive insurance also remains limited. In Vietnam, 14.3% of respondents said their organisation currently had a captive insurer or a cell in a protected cell company, whilst 3.6% planned to establish one within the next three years. 

The remaining 82.1% had no such arrangement. Globally, 22% had an existing captive or cell and 4.1% planned to establish one.

Amongst Vietnamese respondents using or planning captive structures, property damage and business interruption were the most common risks to be underwritten, at 100%. 

Health and medical risks were cited by 75%, whilst product liability and trade credit were each at 50%. Cyber liability, directors’ and officers’ liability, marine and general or third-party liability were each cited by 25%.

Aon’s survey covered 2,941 respondents across 63 countries and territories and 16 industries. The study is conducted every two years and compares responses from Vietnam with the wider global survey.