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April 19, 2011

Insurance Reforms Not Investor-Friendly

Bangkok Post, Corporate Counsellor Column

Reports have circulated of life insurance policyholders being defrauded by unscrupulous insurance agents. The good news is that under recent amendments to the Life Insurance Act, policyholders are now being given more protection. The bad news is that restrictions on foreign ownership, which were rejected amid much controversy with respect to the Alien Business Act, were nonetheless incorporated into the new legislation. This article discusses both the positive and the negative aspects of the amended law.

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September 10, 2019
On June 14, 2019, the National Assembly of Vietnam passed Law No. 42/2019/QH14 amending the Law on Insurance Business and the Law on Intellectual Property, which will come into effect on November 1, 2019, except for certain provisions amending the Law on Intellectual Property.
August 26, 2019
On August 13, 2019, Thailand’s Office of Insurance Commission (OIC) held a meeting to clarify its regulatory plan, which focuses on amendments to the approval process for insurance products and standard health insurance contracts. The amendments are expected to be implemented within this year.Amendments to the Approval Process for Insurance ProductsThe OIC plans to introduce a new approval system for insurance products. The amendments will reduce the timeline for approvals for insurance products as follows:
May 28, 2019
Amendments to the Non-life Insurance Act B.E. 2535 (1992) and Life Insurance Act B.E. 2535 (1992) were published in the Government Gazette  on May 25, 2019. They will come into force 180 days after publication—i.e. November 21, 2019. These amendments are the first in a series of updates that the Office of Insurance Commission (OIC) intends to introduce to modernize and improve Thailand’s insurance laws.The amendments mainly focus on insurance intermediaries, i.e., agents and brokers. The key changes introduced by the amendments are as follows: