Thanachart Bank, Thailand's sixth-biggest lender by assets, is assessing subsidiary Siam City Life Assurance's future after several local firms showed interest in acquiring its licence.
The bank has not finalised its decision yet, said Brendan King, deputy chief executive of TBank.
"A sale [of the licence] is possible, but we won't rush to do it," he said. "We have to prudentially study all aspects including partners, timing, as well as reasonable prices."
SCI Life transferred to TBank after the latter bought out the now-defunct Siam City Bank in 2011.
The firm no longer issues new policies, but it does handle renewable premiums for existing policies.
Given that the Thai government has no plans to issue new insurance licences in the years to come, and with insurance uptake relatively low at 32%, both local and foreign insurers are keen to tap potential growth through mergers and acquisitions.
There are 24 life assurance companies and 65 non-life firms in Thailand.
Japan's Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance recently announced a plan to buy 15% of Thai Life Insurance, reflecting the growing appetite of overseas insurers for a piece of the action.
In the first half of the year, SCI Life had roughly 700 million baht in total premiums with 80,000-90,000 policyholders.
TBank late last year struck a deal to sell Thanachart Life Assurance to Prudential Life Assurance (Thailand), a subsidiary of Britain's Prudential, for 18 billion baht.
Under the agreement, TBank will offer bancassurance business exclusively to Prudential for 15 years.
According to the Thai Life Assurance Association, Thanachart Life Assurance had 4.34 billion baht in total premiums at the end of June.
Apart from SCI Life, TBank has another non-life subsidiary, Thanachart Insurance.
Mr King said the bank still maintains the operation of Thanachart Insurance, given its synergy with the bank's existing core business, car loans.
TBank has 4 million total customers, largely involved in hire purchase loans for cars.
Thanachart Capital (TCAP), a holding company of TBank, reported a net profit for the first half of the year of 6.03 billion baht, an increase of 102.6% year-on-year, propped up by extra income from the sale of Thanachart Life Assurance.
TBank is 51%-owned by Thanachart Capital and 49%-owned by Bank of Nova Scotia, commonly known as Scotiabank.
Shares of Thanachart Capital Plc (TCAP), Thanachart Bank's holding company, closed yesterday on the SET at 35.25 baht, unchanged, in trade worth 77.23 million baht.