Page 58 - The Insurance Times December 2024

The two day Bima Manthan showcased collective commit- capital, liquidity, investment, solvency, reserv-
ment and resolve of insurance industry towards achieving ing and such other areas as decided by the
the vision of Insurance for All by 2047. Authority from time to time from the purview
of Regulatory Sandbox.
Exposure draft – IRDAI (Regulatory Sand- c. Objective of regulations to explicitly state –
“facilitate innovation in the insurance sector
box) Regulations, 2024
while ensuring orderly development of the in-
1. As part of the comprehensive review of Regula- surance sector and protection of interests of
tions being undertaken by the IRDAI, to enhance the policyholders”
the ease of doing business and also reduce com-
d. Conditions for grant of permission to include
pliance burden for stakeholders while also ensur- “promotes innovation beneficial to insurance
ing that interests of policyholders continues to be sector in India”
protected, the IRDAI constituted an internal com-
mittee to review the IRDAI (Regulatory Sandbox) e. To facilitate introduction of Inter-Regulatory
Sandbox proposal wherein “the process and
Regulations. The Committee examined these
procedures in dealing with regulatory sandbox
Regulations and after detailed deliberations rec-
ommended the revised regulations. applications that cuts across more than one
financial sector” will be permitted
2. Based on the recommendation of the Committee,
the IRDAI issues the following proposed amend- 6. The draft Insurance Regulatory and Development
Authority of India (Regulatory Sandbox) (Amend-
ments to the Regulatory Sandbox regulations and
ment) Regulations, 2024 is annexed herewith (An-
seeks comments from the public at large on the
nexure-A). All the stakeholders are requested to
proposed amendments.
forward their comments / suggestions, if any, on
3. The amendment to the regulations are based on the proposed regulations in the attached format
the following approach: (Annexure- B) on or before 5:00 PM on 25th No-
a. Adoption of principle based approach over vember, 2024 to anjaly.jolly@irdai.gov.in and
rule based approach.
randip@irdai.gov.in.
b. No hard-coding of values, numbers, etc in the
regulations.
Fintech Unicorn Cred Expands into
c. Operational issues to be covered in the mas- Insurance Distribution
ter circular.
Cred, a leading fintech platform, has forayed into in-
d. Regulations to facilitate introduction of inno- surance distribution with a focus on motor insurance.
vative ideas/ new concepts across the insur- Leveraging its vehicle management platform, Cred
ance value chain Garage, the company offers insurance products with
4. In light of the above, values/ numbers which were additional discounts for users with good credit scores.
part of the regulations such as minimum networth, Cred Garage, launched in September last year, allows us-
fees, eligibility criteria, application form, experi- ers to track vehicle spends, pending challans, and re-
ment period, extension of time period of permis- newal dates for insurance and pollution certificates. With
sion, allocated time, etc are proposed to be shifted 7 million registered vehicles and 4.4 million users, the
to the master circular. platform has become a key tool for vehicle management.
Akshay Aedula, Head of Product and Growth at Cred,
5. Based on the experience gained and new devel-
highlighted the company's collaboration with Zurich
opments in the market the following are proposed
Kotak General Insurance, Go Digit General Insurance,
as new additions to the regulations:
and ICICI Lombard. Cred, which holds a corporate
a. Definition of “competent authority” agency license from IRDAI, aims to expand partnerships
b. Excluding areas involving prudential and fi- with more insurers, offering enhanced options to its
nancial condition/ stability matters, such as growing user base.

52 December 2024 The Insurance Times