Best’s News & Research Service - July 02, 2020 10:39 AM (EDT)
Japan Post Takes Disciplinary Action Against About 2,400 Insurance Workers
TOKYO //BestWire// - Japan Post Holdings said it took disciplinary action against more than 2,400 sales people in connection with improper insurance sales and underwriting practices.
The company suspended the solicitation operations of 924 people for between one month and six months, it said in a statement. It also suspended solicitation operations of 1,513 people for two to three weeks.
“We would like to express our sincere apology to our customers and all other stakeholders for the concern and inconvenience this incident has caused, and all officers and employees of the Japan Post Group will continue to make group-wide efforts to regain their trust,” Japan Post Holdings said in a statement. “In regard to the investigations of specified rewriting cases and the investigations of all insurance policies, we have mostly finished responding to customers as of the end of March 2020, except for cases that cannot be finished due to reasons attributable to customers.”
In its investigation of sales personnel regarding insurance policy rewriting, Japan Post Holdings identified 315 cases of law violations involving 420 sales people and 3,268 cases involving 2,194 sales people regarding violations of internal rules. The company said it terminated solicitation operations against 11 people, including 10 retired personnel.
Japan Post Holdings also said it took “undetermined” disciplinary action against 166 people as of June 25 “in order to allow for appeals.”
“We will secure appropriate solicitation quality by requiring that the sales activities of the affected personnel be monitored by their managers for a period of four months after restarting solicitation,” the company said.
Looking at additional investigations of all insurance policies, Japan Post Holdings said it has “mostly completed confirmations of policy coverage as of the end of June 2020 and continue responding to customers carefully for cases that cannot be finished due to reasons attributable to customers.”
Regarding investigations of multiple policies implemented from 2019, the company said it took disciplinary actions in the form of termination of solicitation operations against 75 people, including five retirees subject to penalties equivalent to termination of solicitation operations.
The company said it took disciplinary action in the form of suspension of solicitation operations of between three and six months against two people.
In February, Japan Post Insurance Co. Ltd. said it continues to identify and verify insurance policies to be investigated as the government-run insurer submitted a business improvement plan to Japan’s Financial Services Agency (Best’s News, Feb. 3, 2020).
At the end of the year, Japan Post Insurance said it would get a new chief executive officer as the insurer implements administrative changes in the wake of a life insurance mis-selling scandal (Best’s News, Dec. 30, 2019). As of Jan. 5, Mitsuhiko Uehira was to resign as president, CEO and representative executive officer of the insurer. He was also to resign as a director on Jan. 11, Japan Post Insurance said in a statement at the time.
According to Japan Post Insurance, the Financial Services Agency identified “improper solicitation actions and underlying systemic problems” following an inspection of the insurer beginning Aug. 23.
(By David Pilla, news editor, BestWeek: David.Pilla@ambest.com)