2019 Myanmar Insurance Market Liberalization for Foreign Investments: First Preferred Applicants Announced

MoPF announcement

The Ministry of Planning and Finance of Myanmar has just announced[1] the preferred applicants for the licenses of life insurance business in Myanmar to be operated by 100% wholly-owned subsidiaries of  foreign insurers. 

The list of selected applicants included:

• AlA Company Limited
• Chubb Tempest Reinsurance Limited
• Dai-ichi Life Insurance Company, Limited
• Manufacturers Life Insurance Company
• Prudential Hong Kong Limited

VDB-Loi advised one of the selected applicants in connection with the application process.

The announcement represents one of the stages of the insurance market liberalization.  This process to select foreign investors was officially launched in January 2019.

Next steps

The selected applicants would now be required to comply with the pre-licensing conditions, some of which were set out in the Requests for Proposal circulated earlier this year by the MoPF.   The indicative  conditions included, among other things, formation and registration of the subsidiary in Myanmar, approval of auditors and making of the capital contributions.

Joint Venture Route

Those applicants who have not been selected but would like to proceed with the other route of entering Myanmar insurance market (through a joint venture with a local insurer), would need to arrange for the submission of completed expressions of interest over the course of the next four weeks.

[1] http://www.frd.gov.mm/?q=my/foreign-company-permit-my