Muang Thai Insurance set to ride lifestyle trend with cycling cover

Executive vice president Wasit Lamsam said bicycling was increasingly becoming a preferred means of transportation, with the activity not only being a form of exercise but also fitting the lifestyle of more and more people in recent years.

Muang Thai Insurance conducted a marketing survey, which found that around 300,000 people were now active cyclists with high purchasing power, meaning there was an opportunity for the company to offer a cycling insurance product, he said.

"We are designing the protection for bicycles to be in line with the price of each bike, which varies widely. We might offer total-loss coverage for a bike, as this would be attractive for buyers," he added.

Annual premium is expected to start from Bt500 per sum insured of Bt10,000, with a maximum sum insured of around Bt100,000.

Wasit said cycling insurance formed a part of the company’s strategy of "riding the lifestyle trend". It is attempting to develop insurance products to cover the "living, pastime and daily life of customers".

While lifestyle insurance is a niche market that will require more time to develop into a standard form of insurance, Muang Thai Insurance is attaching importance to it because it can help broaden the company’s customer base and range of cross-selling products, said the executive.

Growing business

At present, premium from lifestyle insurance accounts for less than 5 per cent of total annual premium of Bt10 billion at the company, but new business in the segment is growing by 20 to 25 per cent a year.

Muang Thai Insurance provides many products for lifestyle activities, including cover for pet lovers and insurance for golfers.

The company also plans to resume offering insurance for big bikes, but it first needs to adjust the features of its coverage to match the risk of insuring riders of such motorcycles.

The big-bike market is already a focus of Kasikornbank, the banking partner of Muang Thai Insurance, and the company will therefore need to have a selective strategy in order to ensure success in this category, said Wasit.

Yata Karnjanapakkapong, head of the Bike Finder Thailand Community, said most cyclists would welcome insurance due to the added confidence it gave them.

There are many cycling racing events, for which the organisers will take out insurance to protect participants, she said, but cyclists themselves require insurance for their everyday cover – and an insurance product should protect both their person and their bicycle.

"Cyclists are ready to buy insurance, because a bicycle is a vehicle asset that should be protected much as a passenger car should be. Insurers should therefore have many packages [to accommodate this]," she suggested.