Three insurance providers yet to deposit capital
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Myanmar's Insurance Business Regulatory Board (IBRB) has reported that three out of six domestic private companies have yet to deposit the prerequisite capital of US$500,000 as the fund pool to compensate their customers.
They are First National Insurance, Global World Insurance and Ayeyar Myanmar Insurance.
“Among the six companies permitted to operate insurance business in dollars, three have yet to put in the required capital amount and are not yet operational. It will have to be checked whether the money was obtained legally. Only after that will they be given permission to operate,” said a spokesperson from Myanma Insurance, a state-owned provider.
The US$50,000 minimum was raised by 10 times in August to meet competition from three Japanese insurance companies set to be based in the Thilawa Special Economic Zone.
“When foreign insurance companies come to the Thilawa SEZ to provide insurance for factories that are worth millions of dollars, it is going to be difficult for domestic insurance providers to compete. So we allowed the foreign firms to enter the market as well as increasing the deposit to US$500,000 so domestic companies will have a fighting chance,” said Dr Maung Maung Thein, chair of the IBRB and Securities Exchange Commission of Myanmar.
