Page 12 - The Insurance Times August 2024

erating from 9,917 offices against its financial, operational, or other ac- insurer to cancel Saluja's stock options
10,775 offices as on March 31, 2022. tivities, the company said in an ex- and also to take Irdai's prior approval
change filing. before fixing the remuneration of any
Irdai imposes penalty of Separately, Irdai, in its press release, director in future until further orders.
Rs 2 crore on Bajaj Fi- said that it has imposed a penalty of Rs Saluja and the board of Religare have
1 crore on Aegon Life Insurance (now been vehemently opposing a takeover
nance, Aegon Life Insur- known as Bandhan Life) for violating of Religare by the Burman family, which
ance certain provisions under the Anti-Money owns more than 25% in the company.
Laundering (AML) Master Circular,
The Insurance Regulatory and Devel- Care Health is the main cash-generat-
which shall be remitted within a period ing subsidiary of Religare and the
opment Authority of India (Irdai) has
imposed a penalty of Rs 2 crore on of 45 days from the date of the order. country's second-largest standalone
Bajaj Finance and Rs 1 crore on Aegon IRDAI orders Care Health health insurer. The company is worth
Life Insurance (now known as Bandhan at least Rs. 10,000 crore, based on the
Life), citing violations of norms. to buy back esops given to price of its shares at Rs. 110 apiece in
its last rights issue in 2022. It under-
The insurance regulator has fined Bajaj Saluja wrote a premium of Rs. 6,864.5 crore
Finance Rs 1 crore concerning the rec- India's insurance regulator has directed in fiscal year 2023-24, recording a 33-
onciliation of commission and profes- Care Health Insurance Limited to can- 51% year-on-year growth.
sional fees received and reported to cel the hefty stock options that it
the authority. An additional penalty of granted to Religare Enterprises Ltd IRDAI revises its guidelines
Rs 1 crore was imposed concerning the chairperson Rashmi Saluja. This could
maintenance of records of customer be a setback to Saluja and Religare's on commission on long-
documentation. Irdai has also issued board in their struggle against the term motor insurance
additional directions to the company Burman family for control of the finan- The Insurance Regulatory and Devel-
and advised it to comply with these cial services company. opment Authority of India (IRDAI) has
directions in a time-bound manner.
In a late evening order, the Insurance revised its guidelines regarding the
Bajaj Finance added that the decision Regulatory and Development Author- commission for long-term motor insur-
does not have any material impact on ity of India (Irdai) directed the private ance policies. The recent change in
policy brings these long-term policies in
line with the standard one-year motor
IRDAI is targeting 100% cashless hospital treatment insurance policies.
by July 2024, but is it viable? Under the updated regulation, insurers
On a particularly cool June night in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, 60-year-old Ashish are now permitted to provide commis-
Jha found himself reeling from severe chest pain. A visit to a nearby hospi- sions within the expense management
tal didn’t help. His insurance policy, meant to be a lifeline, was unable to framework for long-term policies.
provide cashless treatment for his heart surgery as the hospital lacked the Previously, insurers were allowed to
facilities for cashless claims settlement. offer a commission of up to 17.5% of
the premium as the first-year commis-
Cashless treatment, where the health insurer settles the patient’s bills di-
rectly with the hospital, has been a pet project of the Insurance Regulatory sion for five-year comprehensive motor
and Development Authority of India (Irdai). It has raised the bar further, insurance policies covering two-wheel-
mandating that all cashless claims be processed within three hours of the ers, a CafeMutual Fund report said.
Subsequently, the commission was ad-
receipt of discharge authorisation and has asked insurers to put necessary justed to 10% for the second and third
systems in place by July 31. But as the example above illustrates, the initia-
years, and further reduced to 5% for
tive faces significant hurdles. Per the latest Irdai report, 42% of the 23.36 the fourth and fifth years.
million claims in 2023 were settled through reimbursements.
For three-year comprehensive motor
Recently, the Irdai introduced a series of reforms to enhance policyholders’ insurance policies for four-wheelers, the
access to and benefits from health insurance. These changes specifically commission cap was originally set at
address concerns such as quick cashless treatment everywhere, pre-exist- 15% for the first year, 10% for the sec-
ing disease coverage, and inclusion of senior citizens. ond year, and 5% for the third year.

12 August 2024 The Insurance Times