Thailand Office of Insurance Commission outlines five measures to support insurers’ climate transition

The Thailand Office of Insurance Commission (OIC) set out a five-pronged approach for the insurance sector’s response to climate change at the “Multi-Regulatory Approach: Enabling Thailand's Climate Transition” forum, focusing on supervisory tools, risk management expectations, disclosure, investment flexibility, and product development. Key elements include developing climate-related stress testing for insurers, with an initial focus on flooding as Thailand’s main natural peril and its impact on non-life claims, and using data from the Insurance Bureau System to analyse property insurance coverage at subdistrict level to prioritise areas for policyholder support in disaster scenarios. The OIC is also drafting a Climate Risk Management Guideline covering governance and strategy integration, embedding climate risk into enterprise risk management and Own Risk and Solvency Assessment (ORSA) processes, and disclosure aligned with international standards, alongside a separate ESG disclosure framework spanning environmental, social and governance dimensions. On the investment side, it highlighted that existing OIC rules on insurers’ investments in other businesses allow green investment in clean energy and related infrastructure and in sustainability- and ESG-focused firms, while product initiatives referenced microinsurance priced at THB 7 and THB 10, crop insurance (including in-season rice), and insurance cover for electric vehicles.