Thailand finance ministry to speed up COVID-19 payouts of dissolved insurers

The government said it plans to outsource part of the claim payments to private entities.

Thailand’s Finance Ministry plans to speed up the payment of lump sum claims from Covid-19 policyholders of four dissolved non-life insurance companies.

According to permanent finance secretary Krisada Chinavicharana, he plans to outsource part of the claim payments to private companies who are well-equipped to do so in order to speed up the process to 10,000 policyholders per month,

Currently, the government can only process up to 300 per month and has only paid 5,000 policyholders

Chinavicharana is the chairman of the General Insurance Fund (GIF) under the Office of the Insurance Commission (OIC) which is responsible for payments of outstanding claims involving the dissolved insurance firms. Chinavicharana said the delay in the payouts stems from staff shortages at the GIF.

The finance secretary assured everyone that the GIF has adequate funding to pay out the claims, which total $207.04m (TB7b). However, the GIF may need to seek additional funds in the future through bank loans or issuing of bonds.

In 2021, two non-life insurers, Asia Insurance and The One Insurance, were forced to close because of liquidity problems stemming from losses due to Covid-19 insurance claims.