Disaster insurance in high demand
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Thai individuals and corporations are seeking insurance protection against natural disasters, resulting in a huge number of insurance policies issued.
According to the Office of Insurance Commission, during March 28-Sept 11, 46 insurance companies issued 165,333 disaster insurance policies, for combined sum insured of Bt14 billion in return for Bt104 million premiums.
Pravej Ongartsittigul, the secretary general of OIC, said that of total, 154,306 policies were issued to home owners, for combined sum insured of Bt9.2 billion. SMEs also bought 10,326 policies for Bt1.99 billion sum insured. A number of 701 policies were issued to industrial factories, for Bt3.2 billion sum insured.
The OIC is working closely with the insurance industry in relaxing re-insurance rules, in order to reduce premiums and increase competition, Pravej said.
He expected the number of disaster insurance policies to continue increasing, thanks to annual renewals.
Disaster insurance covers flood, earthquake and storms.
Last year's flood caused US$12 billion in damage, but less than half of affected properties were insured.
