The Office of Insurance Commission (OIC) has ordered SET-listed Syn Mun Kong Insurance (SMK) to rectify its financial position and prepare a rehabilitation plan after the Central Bankruptcy Court ordered the company to undertake rehabilitation and also appointed SMK as a rehabilitation planner.
OIC secretary-general Suttipol Taweechaikarn said the commission is responsible for overseeing SMK's execution of the court order in order to fully protect the rights of the company's policyholders.
The OIC also requires the company to report the progress of the rehabilitation process to the OIC every seven days, he added.
Mr Suttipol said the OIC has also coordinated with the Legal Execution Department regarding guidelines for taking care of insured persons. It expects the rehabilitation process to become clearer once the company has submitted the rehabilitation plan to the official receiver within the legal timeframe.
He added that the company is currently under the supervision of three parties: the Bankruptcy Court, the Legal Execution Department and the OIC.
SMK filed the rehabilitation petition to the court on May 17 and the court accepted the petition for consideration on May 18.
On Oct 20, the court ordered the company to undertake the rehabilitation process and appointed SMK the planner.
The company reported its financial statement in the first quarter of 2022 with a loss of up to 29.4 billion baht as the amount of compensation required for its Covid lump sum payment policy had increased significantly compared to the first quarter of 2021.
The loss resulted in a higher debt than total assets and prompted SMK to file a business rehabilitation petition with the court.
According to SMK's filing to the SET in August, in 2021 it earned total premiums of 661 million baht from the Covid-19 infection in lump-sum payout policy and the 2-in-1 policy.
The infection rate had subsequently increased drastically. The company still has pending insurance claims from the Covid-19 policy of 350,000 policies worth 30 billion baht, according to the filing.