Page 8 - Insurance Times February 2016

IRDAI

News

Indifferent response towards the Corporate Agents ROHINI to inform you

framework have to wait and about Health cover
see", Chirag Jain,
The Insurance Regulatory and Devel- Chief Operating Of- In a bid to bring all relevant informa-
opment Authority of India had notified ficer, Canara HSBC tion regarding
the new framework for Corporate Oriental Bank of Com- the health insur-
Agents in September 2015. However, merce Life Insurance ance policies at
the response to the new corporate Company, told. one place, IRDAI
agency norms in insurance has been Chairman T. S.
lukewarm, according to some insurers. Interestingly, even before the new
norms were introduced, the insurance Vijayan has launched a portal "Reg-
The new framework allows corporate industry was virtually divided on the istry of Hospitals in Network of Insur-
agents, such as banks, to tie up with need for and impact of the increase in ers" (Rohini) in January.
up to three insurers each in life, non- number of tie-ups. Almost all insurers
life and health insurance segments. promoted by banks and dependent on IRDAI plans simple prod-
Earlier, they were allowed to sell poli- the bancassurance channel argued
cies of only one life insurance and one that there might not be much impact ucts over the counter
non-life insurance company. while non-bank-led insurance saw some
sense in it. IRDAI is working with insurers to
It was expected that the new norms bring out standardized products that
will drive up sales through tie-ups be- It now seems that the divide continues can be sold over the counter. Ac-
tween banks and insurers. as bank-led insurers are not jumping to cordingly, T. S. Vijayan, chairman,
sell insurance policies of companies IRDAI said, "We are working with
"However, there has not been much other than those promoted by them. companies in bringing out simple
traction. A possible reason could be Currently, there are about 250 corpo- products that can be sold over the
standardization of insurance products of rate agents, including banks. counter with generalized features
various companies and the long proce- like savings bank products".
dure involved in forging new tie-ups. We
Vijayan said that the products will be
India needs to improve; Rs 60K crore: IRDAI pre-underwritten with defined ben-
efits. He clarified that complex prod-
The IRDAI has acknowledged that the insurance industry will require Rs.50,000 ucts, such as unit linked insurance
- 60,000 crore to improve insurance penetration in the plans will not be sold out of the
country from around 3% of gross domestic product to 6%, counter.
the world average.
He said the regulator has asked in-
The insurance regulator has said that no new foreign in- surers to ease claims settlement
surer has come to India after liberalization of foreign di- procedures following the Chennai
rect investment (FDI) limit to 49% from 26%. Meanwhile, in a bid to grow the floods and is looking at the pace of
insurance market, IRDAI will allow the development and sale of extremely simple settlement, especially that of non-life
over-the-counter products that can be sold without counseling through non- insurance, following a large number
agents. of claims.

8 The Insurance Times, February 2016

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