Page 6 - Life Insurance Today March 2018

Non-Life, which includes health insurance, travel to the customer, which will be used by IRDA and
insurance, motor insurance, home insurance etc, Life Insurance Company for tracking of the complaint
Insurance Companies, Reinsurance companies and looks through IGMS.
after the interest of the insurance industry as a whole.
Y If the complainant is not satisfied with the resolution
IGMS is a comprehensive solution which not only has the
provided by Insurer, he can escalate the complaint for
ability to provide a centralised and online access to the
a review by IRDA for a potential violation of
policyholder but complete access and control to IRDAI for Regulations.
monitoring market conduct issues of which policyholder
Y All the transactions between the Insurer, Insured and
grievances are the main indicators. IGMS has the ability
to classify different complaint types based on pre-defined Remarks by IRDA are visible to the complainant.
rules.
IRDAI gives the insurer 15 days to resolve the complaint
The system has the ability to assign, store and track unique and monitors the turnaround time. The system has defined
complaint IDs. It also sends intimations to various turnaround times for different kinds of policy servicing and
stakeholders as required, within the workflow. The system measures the actual time taken on all complaints.
has defined target Turnaround Times (TATs) and measures
the actual TATs on all complaints. IGMS sets up alerts for Scope of IGMS:

pending tasks nearing the laid down Turnaround Time. The Its mandate is restricted as IRDAI does not adjudicate on
system automatically triggers activities at the appropriate individual complaints through IGMS. The idea is to effect
time through rule based workflows. The system enables speedy disposal of complaints and have a repository to
real time access to all users at all times and from any help IRDAI track nature of complaints and timelines. There
location. is data on types of complaints. The latest is of FY15. In
three years, complaints regarding unfair business practices
How IGMS Works: remained on top, followed by policy servicing and claim
for life insurers. A complaint registered through IGMS will
If you are dissatisfied with your insurance policy, you
flow to the insurer's system as well as the IRDAI repository.
would approach your insurance company and lodge a
complaint. And to make sure that insurers tend to Updating of status will be mirrored in the IRDAI system.
complaints and resolve them quickly, the IRDAI set up the
IGMS enables generation of reports on all criteria like
Integrated Grievance Management System (IGMS) in 2011.
ageing, status, nature of complaint and any other
It works like a central repository of all consumer
parameter that is defined. The Integrated Grievance
complaints received by life insurance and non-life
insurance companies. It is an online consumer complaints Management System (IGMS) is an online consumer
registration system and all insurers have integrated their complaints registration system created by IRDA. All
online complaint logging systems to IGMS, which is insurance companies have integrated their online
complaint logging systems to the IGMS maintained by
maintained by IRDAI. Every insurer is required to have a
grievance management system and policy approved by IRDA. The Complaint Registration Process involves TWO
IRDAI.The system flows like this: SIMPLE steps:
Y A policyholder needs to login in to Step1: Register yourself by entering your details
www.igms.irda.gov.in and create a profile for Step2: Register your complaint and view its status
registering a complaint.
First approach the insurer's Grievance Redressal
Y Policyholders can register one or more complaints.
Mechanism. This is given in your insurance policy document.
Y Details of the complaint are passed on to respective
You can also get the Grievance Redressal Mechanisms of all
insurance company or companies.
insurers at the following links. Once the policy holder
Y While registering the complaint, the policyholder will registers in to IGMS then details of complaint are passed on
get a list of branch offices of the insurance company. to respective insurance companies. Policy holder can see the
Y A confirmation email along with IRDA token no is sent details of the branch offices of the insurance company while

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6 March 2018 Life Insurance Today