Insurance firms seek policy push

Chennai: More regulatory relaxations, consolidation of the regulations, corporatisation of Insurance Information Bureau of India (IIBI), formation of a common software platform for health claims are some the matters that will be discussed by the CEOs of the insurance companies with the sectoral regulator, said industry sources. Pushing for further regulatory relaxations in the insurance sector, the captains of life and non-life insurers will be meeting Debasish Panda, Chairman of Insurance Regulatory Authority of India (IRDAI) on June 30 and July 1 at Hyderabad. The insurers will also discuss with the IRDAI on changing the regulations relating to expenses of the management, commission structure to the intermediaries, offering discount on premium to direct policyholders and the norms relating to benefit illustration to lure prospective customers. The meeting is part of Panda's earlier promise of meeting the industry captains every two months, a senior industry official not wanting to be quoted told IANS. The first meeting was held in Mumbai in April where Panda met the top officials of insurers like Chief Executive Officers (CEO), Chief Marketing Officers (CMO), Chief Technology Officers (CTO) and Chief Financial Officers (CFO). However, this time around Panda will be meeting only the CEOs of the insurance companies. Apart from the above the upcoming meeting will also discuss the introduction of a women driven channel on the lines of Business Correspondents in the banking sector. The meeting will also deliberate on the technology connectivity between the insurers and their bancassurance partners on the issues of policy servicing, claims settlement and others. The CEOs of insurance companies will also discuss rejigging their lobby bodies -- General Insurance Council of India and Life Insurance Council of India.

The IRDAI under Panda has been reviewing various sectoral regulations and has started relaxing many of them. The IRDAI has slashed the number of offline returns submitted by the life insurers to four from 40 and the online returns to five from eight. Further the regulator has extended the 'Use and File' procedure for most of the life and non-life insurance products, reduced the solvency margin requirement for crop insurance and the capital requirement for the Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyothi Bima Yojana (PMJJBY)/ the life insurance scheme backed by the Indian government.