OraGate - Chinese Car Marketing Disaster

Chinese electric vehicle company Ora is facing mounting consumer backlash and potential legal action after it installed an old computer chip in one of its car models — despite telling buyers it came with a cutting-edge one worth around twice the price.

Buyers of the Ora Good Cat, which has a starting price of around 100,000 yuan (US$15,700), say when they complained they were offered a package of store credit including subsidized charging, free software updates and app memberships.

For many owners, that didn’t cut it. Now, some are demanding new chips for their cars or full refunds and compensation, saying the inferior processors have had a significant impact on their user experience, with some functions not working properly.

In a statement issued by a WeChat group of aggrieved Good Cat-owners, which was shared with Caixin, they accused the company of being “evasive” in its response and demanded it explains how the situation occurred. One lawyer who has been interacting with buyers in preparation for possible legal action says Ora’s actions could constitute “consumer fraud”. Ora, which initially responded to questions from Caixin, did not respond to that allegation.

Fishy chips - Claims emerged online last month from owners of the Ora Good Cat that the chip installed in the digital cockpits of their vehicles was an Intel processor released in 2016, and not the more advanced Qualcomm octa-core processor advertised by the carmaker. As a result, some said, the electric hatchback’s entertainment system’s third-party app options were seriously limited.

In a statement published on its mobile app on Nov 22, Ora conceded that the Good Cat models which hit the market a year earlier were not equipped with Qualcomm chips. Those were meant for future models, the firm said, adding that it had advertised the new chips “prematurely”.

Great Wall Motor, Ora’s parent company, later apologized for what it said was a marketing issue.

Older processors - In a since-removed ad for the Good Cat seen by Caixin, Ora had touted a “Qualcomm-powered in-car smart service platform” within its Ora Smart-cafe OS, referring to a platform launched in July 2020 that incorporates three systems — an intelligent cockpit, intelligent driving and intelligent services such as cross-device connectivity.

The Qualcomm processor advertised referred to the Snapdragon SA8155P, a cockpit chip described by the US chipmaker as “an integrated, next-generation automotive cockpit platform”, and used in the in-car systems of models such as the Weltmeister W6, Geely Auto’s Xingyue L and Xpeng’s P5, Caixin understands, while the chip installed in the Ora Good Cats was the Intel A3940, released in 2016.

Qualcomm’s 7-nanometer chip was released in 2018 and had begun launching in mass-produced vehicle models in 2020. The chip is currently the first choice for smart cockpit chips among mainstream new-energy vehicle companies.

By comparison, the Intel A3940 is a quad-core chip that adopts a 14-nanometer process, and its performance lags behind its newer competitor and has weaker compatibility in terms of application ecosystem. Qualcomm’s chips cost around twice as much as Intel’s.

Thailand Insurance Disrupted By Covid

The Office of the Insurance Commission (OIC) plans to enhance the size of the General Insurance Fund (GIF) to help insurance companies handle liquidity issues amid the pandemic as well as set up a new assessment unit to prepare the industry for emerging diseases.

OIC said insurance companies continue to be battered by the surge in claims from Covid policies, with lump-sum payments causing huge losses as these claims are depleting companies' capital reserves and liquidity.

Since the third wave of the pandemic erupted in the second quarter, two companies -- Asia Insurance and The One Insurance -- have been forced to shut down due to such issues.

Learning from Covid-19's impact on the industry, he said the OIC is considering setting up a new work unit to evaluate future emerging diseases to assess insurance risks. The unit would assist in designing insurance products, conditions, coverage and premium rates to lessen the effects new diseases would have on the stability of the insurance sector as a whole.

If the risks can be assessed correctly, insurance companies will not sell more policies than they can afford. Sixteen insurance companies offered Covid policies with lump-sum payments, but only two have had to close because the rest recognized the risks and their limits.

Several companies knew when to stop accepting new customers because they conducted effective risk analysis and put a cap on their sales. Hence, when claims from such policies surged, these companies were able to retain their capital funds and financial positions.

Two other non-life insurance companies with severe liquidity issues -- Syn Mun Kong Insurance (SMK) and Thai Insurance (TIC) -- also recently showed signs of recovery. 
SMK informed the commission there is a group of investors interested in funding the company, while TIC successfully increased its capital reserves and is likely able to pay outstanding claims.

SOCSO Paid RM630 Million - Employment Insurance

The Social Security Organisation (SOCSO) has channeled financial assistance amounting to RM629.2 million through the Employment Insurance System (EIS) since March 18 last year until Nov 5 this year.

The financial assistance was for job search allowances amounting to RM588.5 million, reduced income allowances (RM6.9 million) and early re-employment allowances (RM33.8 million). The number of applications for the benefits from March 18, 2020 to Nov 5, 2021 was 148,926 and, out of that, 119,500 applications were approved. 

55,742 people lost their job since January to Nov 5 this year and a total of RM324.6 million had been approved for the payment of benefits to the individuals involved. Almost 90% of individuals who applied for jobs through the MYFutureJobs portal were able to get a job.

Indonesia - Death Sentence For Corruption

Indonesian prosecutors made history on Monday by recommending a death sentence for a key defendant in a major corruption case at military insurer Asabri. Businessman Heru Hidayat is accused of misguiding the state-run insurer to bad investments for his personal gains and of laundering the ill-gotten money by re-investing in other assets.

Prosecutors told the Jakarta Anti-Corruption Court that Heru alone has inflicted a loss of Rp 12.6 trillion to Asabri. Asabri collects premiums by deducting 8 percent of the salary of soldiers, policemen, and civilian staffers at the Defense Ministry.

While the amended 1999 anti-corruption law carries capital punishment, such a demand has never been presented in the court before due to the vaguely prescribed prerequisites. Article 2 of the law stipulates that graft conviction can be punishable by death if the crime is committed when the country is under an emergency situation due to natural disaster or economic crisis, and/or it is a repeat crime.

Prosecutors argued that Heru is a repeat offender, saying that he was earlier found guilty in a separate corruption case related to another state-owned insurance company, Jiwasraya.

Jiwasraya - The Jiwasraya case already saw the country’s toughest anti-corruption trial in which six defendants were sentenced to life in prison last October. It was for the first time in Indonesian history that multiple defendants were sentenced to life in the same corruption case.

Heru, the chief commissioner of shipping company Trada Alam Minera, is also accused of enriching his company using the money he illegally obtained from Asabri. In their attempts to recover state losses, prosecutors seized the company’s assets such as its 51 percent share in subsidiary Hanochem Shipping and an LNG tanker. According to prosecutors’ documents, they only managed to collect Rp 2.4 trillion from the defendant’s assets.

The alleged corruption and money laundering against Heru took place in 2012-19 -- before he was convicted in the Jiwasraya trial -- dismissing prosecutors’ description that the defendant is a repeat offender. The indictment makes no mention about the specific death sentence article and accordingly the demand must not go that path.

There are eight defendants in the Asabri trial -- two of them were already sentenced to life in the Jiwasraya corruption scandal including Heru and renowned stockbroker Beny Tjokrosaputro. The Supreme Court has recently upheld the sentence.

The six others include two former Asabri president directors Sonny Widjaja and Adam Rachmat Damiri; two former Asabri finance directors Hari Setianto and Bacjtiar Effendi; consultant firm Jakarta Emiten Investor director Jimmy Sutopo; and real estate developer Eureka Prima Jakarta president director Lukman Purnomosidi.

Sonny was the first to appear in the hearing earlier in the day and heard a demand of 10 years’ imprisonment from prosecutors.

Graft convicts rarely got the maximum jail sentence in the Indonesian courts. Before the Jiwasraya trial, only two convicts were sentenced to life, including Adrian Waworuntu during the 2003 trial of a major embezzlement case in a state bank and former Constitutional Court Chief Justice Akil Mochtar who was found guilty in 2014 of taking bribes when handling regional election disputes.

Fuse Secured US$25 million Of Series B

Indonesia-based insurtech startup Fuse -  announced today it has secured $25 million of Series B extension round as it plans to enter more countries including Thailand and Vietnam in Southeast Asia. The startup has closed three funding rounds of Series B within the past six months, bringing the company’s total raised to over $70 million.

The fresh capital was led by an undisclosed global fintech fund with participation from existing investors East Ventures, GGV Capital, eWTP and Emtek.

Launched in 2017, Fuse connects insurance companies with multiple distribution channels and partners to make insurance services accessible and affordable through its technology. Fuse uses mobile applications to offer an agent-focused service, B2A (Business to Agent/ Broker). Fuse Pro app enables agents and broker partners to maximize choices for their customers. The startup also has B2C and B2B2C (micro insurance and financial institute), which provides digital small-ticket size insurance products, distributing insurance products cost-effectively to end customers by partnerships with e-commerce channels like Tokopedia.

Southeast Asia’s rapidly growing digitally savvy middle class that is expected to grow to 350 million consumers with $300 billion in disposable income makes the region an attractive market for insurtech companies. The pandemic accelerated the digital transformation in the insurance industry, one of the most conservative sectors. Fuse plans to tap into the huge and underpenetrated insurance industry in other countries in Southeast Asia, where more than 70 percent of Southeast Asia's population is connected to the internet.

Fuse claims it currently has more than 60,000 marketers or agent partners using the Fuse Pro mobile app. More than 40 insurance companies, including general and life insurance companies, use Fuse’s platform to offer over 300 insurance products for partners or end customers. The company has exceeded $70 million in gross written premium (GWP) for the first three quarters of 2021. The company said it has the largest GWP in Indonesia and Southeast Asia.

The company has over 460 employees, with branch offices in Indonesia, Vietnam, and China.

Life Insurance Record Payout and Purchase

Covid-19 didn’t have quite the impact on the life insurance industry that some were fearing, but it still has resulted in the highest-ever number of payments to beneficiaries. Life insurance policies paid out over US$90 billion in 2020, a 15.4% increase over 2019. That’s the largest year-over-year increase since the 1918 influenza pandemic.

While insurers paid out more than ever before, they were also busy with new business. Spurred by fears of the pandemic, people bought a record US$3.3 trillion in life insurance coverage last year—some 43.1 million policies. That brought total life insurance coverage last year to US$20.4 trillion in the U.S.

Things could have been considerably worse for life insurance companies. Many of the victims of COVID-19 have been older people who generally have smaller policies. The COVID-19 pandemic caused approximately 377,883 deaths in the United States during 2020. Some 81% of those deaths were of people age 65 and older. It’s unknown, though, how many of those seniors had life insurance policies.

The Delta variant changed the demographics. Since the arrival of that mutation, the number of deaths of those above age 65 has declined to 69% of the total, with a big increase in fatalities among people ages 45 to 64. And we’re still determining the impact of Omicron, which is 4 times as transmissible in its early stage as Delta.

COVID deaths in 2021, meanwhile, have topped 2020 as of last month, which could put the insurance industry on track for another record year of payouts.

Malaysian Court Orders Insurer To Honor Claim

An insurance company was today ordered to pay RM85,000 in damages to a widow who won the final appeal over the loss of her husband’s car that was reported missing soon after his death three years ago.

A three-member Court of Appeal bench held that Loh Swee Liang had proved her case on the balance of probabilities that the car had been stolen. The Court ordered AM General Insurance to pay interest of 5% per annum from July 3, 2018 until the settlement of the judgment sum. She was also awarded RM30,000 in costs.

A magistrates’ court in July 2020 dismissed her claim as no proof was furnished that the missing car had been stolen. The High Court, which affirmed the ruling last year, further held that the police had not arrested any thief to recover the car.

In her statement of claim, Loh said that on July 3, 2018, her husband, Tay Guan Song drove his car from their residential Prima Duta Condominium to Changkat View Condominium to clean up the place as the tenant had left.

Loh said Tay, 37, did not respond over the mobile despite repeated calls that day. She went to look for him at the Changkat View condominium, only to find him dead. She said a post mortem report revealed he had died of a heart attack.

After the mourning ceremony, she realized Tay’s car was missing and lodged a police report.
She made a third police report on Sept 1, 2018 and later made a claim with the insurance company but the claim was rejected as she could not prove the missing car had been stolen.

Loh, in her statement, said she inquired with Tay’s relatives and friends to determine if anyone had borrowed the car. She had also checked with Kuala Lumpur City Hall and the Shah Alam City Council to ask if Tay’s car had been towed away before making her insurance claim.