Page 12 - Insurance Times February 2024

feedback mechanism to understand keep pace with changing times in the ance Limited to carry health insurance
how the regulatory architecture is get- insurance industry. business in India after a hiatus of 5 Af-
ting translated on the ground. For ex- "We are considering a sunset clause of ter approval, there will be 6 Standalone
ample, the feedback led to the intro- Health Insurance Companies (SAHI) in-
three years on regulations for policy dy-
duction of a simple customer informa- namism," said Panda. "From 100 odd stead of 5.
tion sheet in health insurance," he said.
policy regulations, we are hoping to have
IRDAI has mandated insurers to create 15-odd regulations to streamline indus- IRDAI eases norms for in-
the revised CIS from January 1 onwards. try growth. This is what will provide ease surer investment in infra-

CIS will include material details of of doing business and the operational
health insurance policies such as sum freedom and flexibility" he said. structure debt funds
assured, exclusions, sub-limits, etc in a The Insurance Regulatory and Devel-
simplified language. "Same would be Narayana Health gets opment Authority of India (IRDAI) has
introduced in other lines of business," IRDAI approval relaxed certain norms on investment in
he added. infrastructure debt funds (IDFs) of non-
IRDAI approved Narayana Health's In- banking financial companies (NBFCs) by
To promote further innovation, the dian health insurance launch. The com- insurance companies.
regulator conducts an insuretech open pany operates Narayana Hospital, a
house where it interacts with tech com- major hospital chain. IRDAI stated in a Previously, insurers were permitted to
panies on a monthly basis to understand invest in IDFs backed by the central gov-
press release that "Insurance Regula-
and implement innovative solutions tory & Development Authority of India ernment on a case-by-case basis. The
that give a fillip to the insurance sector. (IRDAI) in its 124th meeting held on regulator has done away with the re-
quirement for case-by-case approval for
Panda also said that they are consider- December 28, 2023, has granted a Cer- IDF as a measure to encourage invest-
ing a provision that would require laws tificate of Registration to a new health ments by insurers in the sector and to
to be reviewed every three years to insurer namely, Narayana Health Insur- increase the ease of doing business.

This is in the wake of the Reserve Bank
New consolidated regulation on expenses of man- of India's (RBI's) decision to enable IDF-
NBFCs to play a greater role in financ-
agement notified by IRDAI ing the infrastructure sector.
Based on the Regulation Review Committee's (RRC) recommendations, IRDAI
According to recent regulation by
released a consolidated EoM regulation, including commissions. Based on IRDAI, insurers are allowed to make
RRC recommendation, IRDAI released an exposure draft on the EoM in No- investments in IDF-NBFCs which are
vember 2023, including commission for life and non-life insurance compa- registered with the RBI and have a mini-
nies. Instead of keeping separate commission-related and EoM regulations, mum credit rating of AA or its equiva-
the RRC suggested merging them. lent by a Credit Rating Agency regis-
After repealing three regulations, the RRC recommended the IRDAI (EoM, tered with the Securities and Exchange
including commission, of insurers) Regulations 2023. The new regulations will Board of India (Sebi) to be eligible for
take effect on April 1, 2024, and last three years. The regulator gave stake- the investment.
holders until December 6, 2023, to comment and suggest.
The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (Expenses of Join
Management of Insurers Transacting General or Health Insurance Business)
Regulations, 2023, the Life Insurance Business Regulations, 2023, and the Online Certificate
Commission Regulations, 2023, were repealed. This draft is based on RRC Course on
suggestions from November 2023 to merge the three regulations.
Digital Trends in
The three regulations were merged into one to simplify, and it has no signifi-
cant changes from the initial one, said an unnamed industry official. The Reinsurance
IRDAI directed the Councils to form an RRC with stakeholder representatives
to improve ease of doing business and simplify regulations by moving to a For details please visit
principles-based regime to make them more effective. www.smartonlinecourse.co.in

12 February 2024 The Insurance Times