Bangkok Life sees rising demand for health insurance – Bangkok Post
Bangkok Life Assurance (BLA) expects demand for health insurance to rise in 2022 following the economic recovery and interest rate hikes.
The company also plans to focus on unit-linked insurance, health insurance, and elderly and pension insurance products this year, according to Chone Sophonpanich, president and chief executive of BLA.
BLA revealed its business plan for the next three years yesterday under the slogan “A journey towards a sustainable future”, which focuses on five dimensions to improve the company’s competitiveness and sustainability.
Mr Chone said health and savings insurance will become more attractive this year as many central banks started to signal interest rate hikes, especially unit-linked products that combine life insurance with exposure to investment as they better meet customer demand for hybrid products.
He said unit-linked products have been attracting customers even with low interest rates and recorded steady growth in sales on the digital platform.
As Thailand is becoming a full-fledged ageing society, health, dividend and pension insurance will also become popular as more people seek security in these long-term insurance products, said Mr Chone.
In 2021, claims from Covid insurance represented 2% of total claim payments, not posing any threat to the company’s financial stability as the accumulated value of claims remained near the annual average.
The company is monitoring the pandemic situation in case there is a significant surge in cases, although the majority of the population has already been vaccinated.
As for BLA’s investment management direction in 2022, Chollada Sophonpanich, executive vice-president of the investment division, said 80% of the company’s investment portfolio has been allocated to fixed income, including government and corporate bonds.
This year, as interest and inflation rates are on an uptrend, BLA will diversify into foreign stocks and increase its investment in private equities, she said.
To hedge against market volatility, the company also plans to focus more on value stocks instead of high-growth stocks, unless they are reasonably priced, said Ms Chollada.
According to the Thai Life Assurance Association, total premiums received in the life assurance industry during the first 11 months of 2021 stood at 545 billion baht, up 2.56% from the same period last year.
