Two Royal Thai Air Force C130 aircraft left the Subang air force base near here around 5.03pm and were expected to arrive at their destination in two-and-a-half hours.

Pramualrat Phimpahu, 45, waiting to be carried into an ambulance at the Raja Permaisuri Bainun Hospital to be taken to the Royal Malaysian Air Force base in Subang

Also onboard were 28 family members of the victims, and one passenger who was hurt in the accident. Three others were sent back earlier by ambulance.

Earlier, in Ipoh, Thai Embassy officials arrived at the Raja Permaisuri Bainun Hospital mortuary at 8am to make arrangements to send home bodies of the Thai tourists killed in the bus crash along the Cameron Highlands-Simpang Pulai road.

Buddhist monks, Thai Embassy officials and family members kneeled and offered prayers before 25 coffins draped in white cloth which were arranged in two neat rows outside the mortuary.

Areena Songserm, 19, inside an ambulance which will take her Bukit Kayu Hitam where she will be received by Haadyai Hospital officers. With her is her mother Senah Songserm.

Joss sticks and yellow chrysanthemums were also offered to the deceased.

The coffins were then loaded onto a 25-tonne trailer to be transported to the Subang air force base.

An additional van had to be used as the trailer could not fit all 25 bodies.

Both vehicles, together with other vehicles ferrying embassy officials and family members, left the mortuary at 12.15pm.

Haadyai Hospital consultant Choowit Jiranivatanont said four patients in stable condition were also discharged from the Raja Permaisuri Bainun Hospital.

Crash survivors Areena Songserm, 20, Rungnapa Klungsuwan, 53, Suchanchira Chaiaueai, 41, were transported to the Bukit Kayu Hitam border before being sent to the Hattyai Hospital.

Minmita Theenakun, 29, (second from right) being consoled by a family member at Raja Permaisuri Bainun Hospital where she claimed the bodies of her parents Phuwadit and Thanathon Tanasak Theenakun.

They left the hospital at 11.27am in two ambulances, escorted by a van with Thai embassy officials.

Another survivor, Pramualarat Phimpahu, 45, was taken to Subang air force base to be flown to Bangkok.

Thai Ambassador to Malaysia Thana Duangratana thanked the Malaysian government for its assistance.

Two police outriders and two police MPVs escorted the trailer with the bodies to Shah Alam.

However, some travellers often ask if it is necessary to buy travel insurance when purchasing the air tickets. Well, if any airline can guarantee, among others, that your plane will be on time, your luggage will arrive safely on the same flight or you will not meet with an accident, then it is not necessary to purchase travel insurance.

For many though, travel insurance has eased the pain of cancelled flights, delayed travel and interrupted trips as witnessed recently with the Icelandic volcano eruption that caused havoc on international flights around the world and threw hundreds of thousands of travellers into a state of stranded chaos.

On the local front, both Malaysia Airlines (MAS) and AirAsia Bhd currently offer travel insurance purchase for customers buying air tickets via their web portals.

In 2008, MAS was the first full-service carrier in Asia to offer its travel insurance online. The MHinsure policy provides travellers comprehensive insurance coverage for unexpected losses during their journey with access to Mondial Assistance’s 24-hour worldwide assistance.

According to MAS general manager business development Visva Sabaratnam, the scheme has been well received with 25% of the carrier’s passengers purchasing it.

He said the comprehensive policy included overseas medical expenses, travel delays, trip cancellation, loss of baggage and personal effects, and home protection in case of damage to the home during the travel period.

“We promote MHinsure on our website, call centre and ticketing offices, From the response thus far, there is certainly good awareness of this service.

“We also see an estimated 30% of international policy holders who have purchased MHinsure more than once in 2009, indicating satisfaction with the product offerings and services provided, including claims experience,” he told StarBiz.

Apart from MAS passengers, those departing from Malaysia, Singapore and Australia on any other airline can purchase MHinsure from these countries on the MAS website.

MHinsure is currently available in Malaysia, Australia, Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Singapore and Sweden, and was recently introduced in the UK, United Arab Emirates and New Zealand.

With this, a total of 11 countries in the MAS network now offer online travel insurance. According to the MAS website, travellers need only to complete the online travel insurance application to be eligible for cover. There is no need for medical examination. MHinsure also offers travellers the same premium regardless of age. The premiums are based on travel duration and destination.

Commenting on its competitiveness, Sabaratnam said MHinsure was developed with the primary objective of ensuring high quality cover at affordable prices.

MHinsure Basic Plan starts from RM15 for domestic travel for a 30-day cover and RM23 for international cover for a five-day trip.

Sabaratnam said whichever international cover customers chose, MHinsure offered customers unlimited financial coverage in the case of an overseas emergency evacuation or repatriation. “This sets us apart from the rest.”

Meanwhile, AirAsia head of financial services and loyalty Johan Aris Ibrahim said AirAsia started selling travel insurance online in 2005 and the recent rebranding of its insurance product as AirAsia Insure from Go Insure had boosted public awareness on the offering.

“The rebranding exercise was prompted by AirAsia’s plans to expand the insurance services regionally and to reinforce its position as the only Asean low-cost carrier to offer travelling insurance coverage,” he told StarBiz.

He said the response had been “positive regionally” and guests were starting to be insurance-conscious when travelling, whether for business or leisure.

“We have gone from strength to strength in offering AirAsia Insure and the number of policies sold has been growing at 30% annually,” Johan said.

AirAsia’s plan starts from RM7.50 for the AirAsia Insure one-way cover for domestic travel to RM49 for AirAsia Insure return cover for international travel (11-30 days).

“Besides Malaysia, AirAsia Insure is available for travel from Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Macau, Hong Kong, China and Australia,” Johan said.

“By the end of 2010, AirAsia Insure will be available for most of our destinations and at our affiliated companies for purchase at AirAsia Megastore.com, AirAsiaredtix.com and AirAsiaGo.com.

“There is an option to purchase insurance online as a notification or prompter will alert customers on AirAsia Insure when they buy their tickets online. We have invested in strategic and targeted advertising and promotion activities,” he said.

Airlines aside, travel insurance is also offered by travel agencies, banks and insurers. In addition, credit card issuers often issue complimentary travel insurance policies to cardholders that charge ticket purchases to their cards

Chartis Vice President, Mr Wong Fu-tat, said at a press conference that as the incident was a special case, “the level of compensation for victims has been doubled from HK$500,000 to HK$1 million, under insurance covering accidents caused by public transport”. The insurer will also help with the cost of bringing the remains of the dead to Hong Kong.

Mr Wong adds that the injured stand to receive up to HK$1 million in medical insurance benefits. Chartis will also provide them with cover of up to HK$100,000 for six months of follow-up medical treatment in Hong Kong.

Separately, the Manila Bulletin newspaper reports that the victims of the hostage-taking crisis will receive insurance benefits from the Passenger Accident Management and Insurance (PAMI) Agency as the bus that carried the tourists is insured by the agency.

Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) officer-in-charge Assistant Secretary, Dante Lantin, said: “The families of the dead victims of the hostage are entitled to at least PHP60,000 (US$1,318) insurance claims each. As for the injured passengers, PAMI has committed to shoulder part of their hospital expenses,” he said. Apart from the eight Hong Kong tourists killed, the hostage-taker himself, former police officer Rolando Mendoza, was shot dead. At least seven others were injured in the incident.

It is the highest fine levied on a single firm for data security failings.

Margaret Cole, the FSA’s director of enforcement and financial crime, said: “Zurich UK let its customers down badly.”

Stephen Lewis, chief executive of Zurich UK, said: “This incident was unacceptable.”

The data on policyholders, including in some cases bank account and credit card information, went missing in August 2008.

However, Zurich did not become aware of the loss until a year later, when it then began notifying customers.

The information went missing during a routine transfer to a data storage centre in South Africa.

‘Oblivious’

The FSA said in a statement: “Zurich UK failed to take reasonable care to ensure it had effective systems and controls to manage the risks relating to the security of customer data resulting from the outsourcing arrangement.

“The firm also failed to ensure that it had effective systems and controls to prevent the lost data being used for financial crime.”

Margaret Cole added that Zurich “failed to oversee the outsourcing arrangement effectively and did not have full control over the data being processed by Zurich SA”.

“To make matters worse, Zurich UK was oblivious to the data loss incident until a year later.

“Firms across the financial sector would do well to look at the details of this case and learn from the mistakes that Zurich UK made,” she said.

Zurich said that it had no evidence the data had been misused. The firm said it had introduced new security measures, and had appointed a dedicated information security officer.

Mr Lewis said that the incident “served to remind us of the need to strive continually to improve the ways in which we seek to protect customers’ data”.

As Zurich agreed to settle at an early stage of the investigation the firm’s fine was reduced by 30%. Without this discount the fine would have been £3.25m.

Encryption

Experts said the size of the fine sends a signal that the authorities will crack down hard on data loss.

Rupert Casey, partner at Macfarlanes law firm, said companies and organisations had previously failed to take data loss seriously.

“That stemmed from the fact that data protection law never had any bite to it. That has all changed.

“What this fine should do is drive the issue up the agenda,” he said.

Better encryption of data, password protection, and measures to ensure large files cannot be downloaded to devices like memory sticks must all be improved, he said.

The FSA has previously fined HSBC, Nationwide and Norwich Union for data loss.

Prior to joining Chartis Malaysia, Mr Harris was Chief Executive Officer of Chartis New Zealand, where he led a large team and was responsible for designing and implementing a co-ordinated business strategy across multiple operating divisions and support functions.

Mr Harris has more than 20 years experience in general insurance during which time he has worked in various operational disciplines including underwriting, product, actuarial, reinsurance, claims and risk/governance functions. He gained this wide-ranging experience working for major insurers in Australia, New Zealand, India and the United Kingdom. He is a senior associate member of the Australian and New Zealand Institute of Insurance and Finance.

Chartis Malaysia Insurance Berhad is a leading property-casualty and general insurance provider in the country. It has 15 offices nationwide, offering insurance services to businesses and consumers via a network of more than 3,000 professional agents, brokers and staff.

Chartis is a worldwide leader in property-casualty and general insurance. Chartis Companies employ more than 34,000 people worldwide and serve more than 40 million business and individual customers in 160 countries and jurisdictions on every continent. In 2009, Chartis companies wrote gross premiums of over US$40-billion worldwide and the company paid out an average of US$75 million worldwide in claims everyday.

From next year, the limit of bank deposits insured by Malaysia Deposit Insurance (PIDM) will be raised to RM250,000 per depositor per member bank from RM60,000 now.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak also announced yesterday a plan to introduce an explicit insurance compensation scheme (ICS) for insurance and takaful policyholders.

According to the Finance Ministry, it is the Prime Minister’s intention to implement a package of legislative initiatives aimed at enhancing financial consumer protection for Malaysians.

“The plan is for this package to be tabled in Parliament for debate and enactment before year-end,” the Finance Ministry said.

With the ICS, policyholders of insurance and takaful products will also enjoy a similar level of consumer protection provided by PIDM for depositors in the commercial and Islamic banks.

Since the temporary government deposit guarantee would lapse as scheduled at the end of this year, the enhanced protection package would continue to provide increased protection to depositors.

“With this new limit, 99 per cent of depositors will be protected in full,” the ministry said.

Chief executive officer of PIDM Jean Pierre Sabourin said at a media briefing in Kuala Lumpur said the RM250,000 limit was proposed based on a survey of member banks and took into consideration the expected growing wealth of Malaysians in the years ahead.

He said PIDM will be issuing the new deposit insurance information regulations to be effective in January 2011.

“The purpose of the regulations is to ensure depositors receive accurate, relevant and timely information on deposit insurance, limits and coverage,” he said.

On the ICS, Sabourin said the scheme is to protect policyholders from the loss of their policy claims or insured benefits in the unlikely event of a failure of an insurance or takaful company.

He said the establishment of the ICS was timely since the insurance has an important economic role.

Like in the Deposit Insurance System, PIDM will also collect annual levies or premiums from member insurance companies but it may also borrow or raise funds from the capital markets.

Allianz Shield is devised to cover among others, medical expenses that include dengue, malaria or Japanese Encephalitis, bungee jumping, amateur sports (except martial arts and boxing), natural disasters, scuba diving (up to 50 metres deep), kidnap coverage, evacuation programme, snatch theft and more.

Via Business Times.

Last month, both Bank Negara Malaysia and the General Insurance Association of Malaysia (Piam) endorsed Insurance Services Malaysia’s automotive business intelligence system (ISM-ABI).

The ISM-ABI is the only approved system for vehicle valuation among financial services companies in Malaysia.

“The introduction of the new system for motor insurance is in line with practices in other developed markets,” said ISM chief executive officer Carl Rajendram in Petaling Jaya yesterday.

Rajendram said that most major motor insurers and takaful operators are in the process of adopting the new and more transparent system for motor insurance starting 2010.

“It is part of the modernisation of Malaysia’s motor insurance and takaful cover announced recently and will ultimately benefit the consumers, insurance and takaful companies,” Rajendram said.

“The entire automotive industry is moving towards greater competitiveness and efficiency and we are confident that the ISM-ABI will play a pivotal role in driving this objective among all stakeholders,” he explained.

With the new service from ISM, insurance and takaful companies now have the ability to generate renewal notices with the current year sum insured with the corresponding premium to be paid.

“The services increase transparency in the whole motor insurance process not only for purchasing insurance but also during claims,” Rajendram said.

With the new system from ISM, insurers and takaful operators may also choose to pre-determine the compensation upon theft and total loss claims by referencing the database.

“Consumers are also able to verify the vehicle’s market value themselves from the website and access the same information that insurers are accessing,” he said.

The new service will reduce uncertainty when insuring a vehicle and reduce dissatisfaction that consumers experience when making a claim.

Kurnia Insurans (Malaysia) Bhd managing director and chief executive officer (CEO) Captain K.H. Chia has resigned, after just 17 months on the job.

Chia told Business Times that he had tendered his resignation, which will be effective at the end of this month.

Kurnia Asia, which owns the country’s number one motor insurer, has not decided who will take over from Chia.

His departure followed the resignation of Datuk Adrian Loh from the board of Kurnia Asia Bhd which was announced on Bursa Malaysia’s website yesterday. Chia took over the post of Kurnia Insurans CEO from Loh on July 1 2008.

“My resignation is on my own accord. It’s a new year and I want to pursue my own aspirations,” he said. Chia hinted that his next move might be in the life insurance segment.

The 30-year veteran of the insurance industry started as a life insurance agent and was previously the CEO of Citic-Prudential in China.

A company insider said Chia had indicated that he wanted to move back to China.

“Chia had mentioned his intention to resign about two months ago. So it was no surprise that his decision to step down was made known to the senior management team on Monday,” the source told Business Times.

Chia was said to have made up his mind to join the Kurnia group after talking to Tan Sri Kua Sian Kooi, who is the chairman of both Kurnia Asia and Kurnia Insurans.

“Our relationship remains on good terms,” Chia said.

He was responsible for hauling Kurnia Insurans, which accounts for nearly 95 per cent of Kurnia Asia’s annual revenue, out of the red.

Under Chia’s leadership, Kurnia successfully launched the Transformation of Operations and Performance exercise in July 2007. The group has since turned around, with a net profit of RM57.1 million in the financial year ended June 30 2009 from a net loss of RM301.8 million in 2008.

Chief executive officer Rob Ryan said the company is strengthening its agency force, expanding its branch footprint nationwide and introducing various diversified products to boost its performance next year.

For the financial year ending December 31 2009, Ryan expects growth to remain flat compared with last year.

Gross written premiums rose 8.2 per cent to RM479 million in 2008 from RM442.6 million in 2007.
As of November 2009, Chartis Malaysia has recorded RM400 million in gross premiums.

The general insurer, represented by some 2,800 agents, which contributes about 54 per cent to its turnover, wants to increase its intake to 3,000 agents in the coming year.

“Our focus for 2010 will be targeted more on the small business sector, which is the backbone of the Malaysian economy. This is where we want to increase our presence,” Ryan told newsmen at Chartis brand launch in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.

He said Chartis plans to offer package policy for fire and liability for the small business community primarily through its agency force.

“We are also looking to expand our household contents insurance, the country’s penetration in this segment is only at about 5 per cent,” he said.

Another new product Chartis has recently introduced is the aviation insurance, which Ryan claims the company is the first locally incorporated insurer to offer directly in the country.

Ryan said as the operations and the team in Malaysia is getting stronger, Chartis will be opening at least three new branches in 2010.

Following the new branch to be launched in Klang, Selangor, on December 21, the insurer is planning to open another office in Sungai Petani, Kedah, in the first quarter of next year.

“We are also looking to open another office in Seremban, Negeri Sembilan, and at least one more in the East Coast next year,” he added.

Chartis is optimistic on Malaysia’s insurance prospects and is keen to continue investing in the country.

“We want to double our business here in the next five years,” Ryan said.

In the pipeline, Chartis is planning to set up a regional processing centre for Southeast Asia that would create 1,500 jobs

“The plan is to expand that globally,” said Chartis Southeast Asia’s regional president Leslie Mouat without disclosing the budget.

The proposed centre will initially be set up in Technology Park Malaysia in Bukit Jalil, Kuala Lumpur, and will eventually move to a bigger site in Cyberjaya, Selangor.

The Chartis name took effect on December 7 this year and is part of a worldwide roll out of the brand to harmonise and provide a consistent look and feel for the company’s operating business.

Chartis Malaysia, with a capital of over RM310 million, is above the 130 per cent minimum capital adequacy ratio required by the Bank Negara Malaysia.