Page 19 - Insurance Times April 2023

done through Aadhar. This will ensure security and of using dematerialized insurance policies would be
confidentiality of the information related to identity. encouraged.

As a one-stop shop for buying and selling insurance, for policy This would reduce fraud and eliminate misplacement of
servicing and also for claim settlement Bima Sugam will now documents. It would be possible for customers to go online
take off from where the growing tribe of numerous online and view the policy documents related to their insurance
insurance web-aggregators have been active. (Insurance cover, be it life, vehicle or medical insurance conveniently.
web aggregators collect, compile, and provide information They would thus be able to set their own electronic
about different companies' insurance policies on a website. reminders for renewals and maturity and not have to
They act as intermediaries between the insurance depend on anybody for renewing their policies in time.
companies and prospects who wish to purchase insurance
policies. Example: Policy Bazaar, TurtleMint etc.) This portal The stakeholders in Bima Sugam
will be shared by insurers and agents, brokers and web-
The pattern of stock-holding in Bima Sugam is as
aggregators. Agent portability will also be available to online
follows:
customers.
Life Insurance Council (30%)
This new online-aggregator is expected to disrupt the General Insurance Council (30%)
insurance distribution business in India and is in conformity
Online PSBs (35%)
with the regulator wanting to digitize insurance distribution
Brokers Association (5%)
and level out the playing field for all insurers, online. Whilst
the platform may disrupt distribution in a big way, a large
Several insurance companies (both general and life insurers)
section of customers will still need help from offline modes
would become major shareholders in the Bima Sugam
of distribution like agents, banks and last mile financial
platform as the Life Insurance and General Insurance
inclusion partners. Hence, this option will also be available
Councils are representative bodies of life and non-life insurers
for those customers who would prefer the assistance of
respectively.
intermediaries.
Online PSBs is also one of the shareholders here. On-line PSB
Insurance Repositories in Bima Sugam
is a government initiative - a new-age digital lending
The policies purchased will be stored digitally with insurance
platform - that aims to enhance the credit off-take for the
repositories such as CDSL and NSDL in a e-insurance
MSME sector and individual entrepreneurs. Their platform
paperless account (like a demat account) for easy viewing
integrates advanced technologies like AI (Artificial
and convenient claims servicing. (Insurance Repositories are
Intelligence) and ML ( Machine-learning) to automate and
registered by The Insurance Regulatory and Development
digitize the lending processes for borrowers and lenders and
Authority of India for maintaining data of insurance policies
provides technology-based financial innovations and
in electronic form on behalf of insurers.) Thus the process
solutions. It is also known as The 59 minutes Public Sector
Banks(PSB) loan scheme as it enables the borrowers to
receive their loans within 59 minutes of submission of all the
required documentation.
Thus it has leveraged technology to usher in speed and
simplicity in availing loans that have perennially been pain
points for the Indian borrower. With an impressive track
record of having created a new benchmark by providing
digital approvals for business as well as Retail loans within
59 minutes, this Fintech company has been incorporated to
utilize their technical expertise to put up this online
platform.

How will the Bima Sugam portal work?
The portal will promote end-to-end digitisation of the

The Insurance Times April 2023 17