In Thailand, the Italy-based firm operates both life and non-life insurance companies, the former under the name Generali Life Assurance (Thailand) and the latter under Generali Insurance Thailand.

Bundit Jiamanoonkoonkit, country manager of Generali Thailand and chief executive of Generali Life Assurance, said the retail insurance business would be the priority focus over the next three years but it would also maintain its strong business-to-business base.

The company this year has a new partner, Phatra Securities, to offer privilege insurance under the Chronos brand to cater to Phatra’s wealthy customers.

Generali aims for a 50:50 balance of retail and business customers to ensure risk diversification.

When the economy is volatile, retail customers will have a smaller impact on insurance firms than business clients, Bundit said.

Last year, Generali Thailand formed an exclusive partnership with Kiatnakin Bank to bring in more premium income from retail customers, as that bank is strong in auto loans and wealthy depositors.

To attract retail customers, the insurer has developed a mobile application called Generali365.

Generali Thailand in the first six months brought in total premium income of Bt3.015 billion, of which Bt2.677 billion was life-insurance premiums.

In the first half, gross income from life-insurance premiums expanded by 29 per cent, while first-year premiums were Bt671 million, up by 43 per cent year on year, significantly outperforming the overall life-insurance market, which dropped by 0.4 per cent.

Bancassurance contributed most premium income at Bt302 million, followed by group insurance and direct sales.

Meanwhile, non-life insurance earned premium income in the first six months of Bt338 million, growth of 29 per cent.

Bundit said the results in the first half showed that his company had further room to grow even though the economy is volatile. Healthy economic growth in the second quarter indicated that the second half would also be positive.

The bancassurance and agent channels both grew in the second half, and the company plans to launch new insurance plans to cater to retirees and white-collar workers who give importance to tax deductions in the fourth quarter.

Moreover, the company plans to develop a unit-linked insurance product to cater to wealthy customers.