Viriyah: Technology is changing the face of Thai insurance

Transcript

The Thai insurance sector is growing from strength to strength, especially in the non-life sector. But a 33 percent drop in car sales in 2014 dramatically affected the motor insurance industry. Natdhanai Mankosol and Arthapas Cheuasangpun from Viriyah Insurance discuss the technological innovations that are helping Viriyah offer better services to their insurance customers.

World Finance: The Thai insurance sector is growing from strength to strength: especially in the non-life sector.

With me now is Natdhanai Mankosol and Arthapas Cheuasangpun from Viriyah Insurance one of the leading providers in the area to talk about how the sector is evolving.

Well Natdhanai if I might start with you let’s look at the economic and indeed the political situation at present in the country – how is that faring?

Natdhanai Mankosol: The political and economic situation in the past was not really that good. We got a new government, and the new government is trying to build a new system and economy; it’s trying to get rid of a lot of corruption and a lot of other problems.

The government is trying to create more new giant projects and invest money to help the economy grow more. There are a lot of projects going on. We are all – in Thailand – happy with our new government; we are getting better and we can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

World Finance: And Arthapas does this translate into a favourable environment for the non-life insurance sector?

Arthapas Cheuasangpun: Well, as predicted it will take a couple of years for the economy to fully recover. During that time the consumer market will decrease as households are spending less and saving more.

The automobile industry has also been affected by this – as you can see from the 33 percent drop in car sales last year. With 50 percent of non-life insurance premiums coming from this sector, it has caused a dramatic effect for the industry.

World Finance: This is a heavily competitive sector, how do you approach this?

Arthapas Cheuasangpun: We have 140 branches and claim service centres nationwide, operating 24/7, providing impeccable services for our customers.

We have the largest customer-base in Thailand, making us the leading Thai non-life insurer for the past few decades.

We are recognised as a trusted household name, and we pride ourselves in the satisfaction of our customers, especially now for our claim services.

Fairness is our policy, so we treat our customers fairly and honestly. We have further plans to enhance our services by incorporating new technology and innovation to maintain existing policyholders and to reach out for potential customers.

World Finance: Of course technology and innovation are changing the face of the insurance sector – so how do you see this developing? And how are you adapting alongside it?

Arthapas Cheuasangpun: Because we are embracing new technologies and innovation to increase the function and speed of our services, we’ve introduced three different projects this year.

The first – Viriyah Smart Claim, we call it VSC – which targets the convenient use of our customer. It provides a precise location of an accident for our nearest claim inspector to reach the scene within 20 minutes. This also provides us with valuable statistical information of frequent accidents, so we can have our staff stationed nearby for an even faster service.

The second, we call it Live Video Conference. This allows our claims staff to monitor repairs at different stages. With further development to allow our customer to monitor their vehicle personally.

Last is Fast Track Repair: this project is to ensure that all minor damages get repaired within 24 hours. With this technology and innovations that we’ve introduced, we are confident that we are adapting to the modern market.

World Finance: And finally Natdhanai, how do you see the insurance sector in the region developing in terms of needs and coverage; and how do you set to capitalise on this?

Natdhanai Mankosol: The AEC [ASEAN Economic Community] is coming really fast, it’s arriving early next year and we are going to see a lot of people travelling around the region, We’ve got to have our alliance in our neighbour countries, with their insurers.

We’re going to see many people travelling around and we can see it opens more opportunities for us to sell more travel insurance, or cargo, or what we call carrier liability insurance for both businesses and for people travelling around, especially in the future.

World Finance: Natdhanai and Arthapas, thank you.

Arthapas Cheuasangpun: Thank you.

Natdhanai Mankosol: Thank you very much.