Floods boost January insurance business
The Thai insurance industry witnessed increasing premiums in January, according to the Office of Insurance Commission (OIC).
OIC Secretary-General Pravej Ong-artsithikul attributed the hike to last year's floods, which encouraged manufacturers and individuals to buy insurance.
In the month, the number of insurance policies reached 4.7 million, up 15.48 per cent from the same period last year. Total insurance coverage is Bt5.9 trillion. Of total, 4.15 million policies are for non-life coverage, representing an increase of 15.62 per cent on year. The number of life insurance policies also increased 14.52 per cent to 578,829, which brought the ratio of life insurance policies to 27.48 per cent of population, from 25.77 per cent last year.
"The industry showed an improvement in the month, driven by fears and awareness among individuals and manufacturers of potential impacts from disasters. They now view that insurance policies can mitigate financial damage," Pravej said.
The OIC and Thai insurers this year agreed to launch disaster insurance policies, to cover losses from floods, storms and earthquakes. Pravej believed that the industry would leapfrog from the scheme. And this may also raise the insurance premium to GDP ratio to 6 per cent sooner than expected. The second master plan aims to acheive the ratio when the plan ends in 2014.
