THAI REGULATOR ASKS INSURERS TO SPEED UP TSUNAMI PAYMENTS

The Thai Insurance Department has asked locally based insurers to speed up payments to victims of the December 26 tsunami. The department has also established information and aid centres in the six affected Thai provinces. Department director-general Potjanee Thanavaranit said that, by December 31, 70 insured victims were reported to have had cover worth 30m baht, with 100 insured cars reported. Ms Potjanee estimated that the total cost to the Thai insurance industry was likely to be in the region of 40bn baht. Thailand had the highest insurance penetration of the countries worst hit by the tsunami, at 3.45% for life and non-life combined, according to Swiss Re’s sigma study on World Insurance in 2003.