Skip to main content

Irdai to hasten online approvals

By
Aims to clear products within a month; advisory panels constituted for promoting e- commerce
The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (Irdai) plans to make the approval process for online products simpler and faster.
With a separate process for filing applications on these, it says it is trying to ensure they do not undergo the same rigorous process as offline products to get approved, and are approved within 30- 40 days.
An insurance product first goes to the regulator, which approves the features and pricing, after which it can be brought to the market for sale.
“Offline products take at least four to six months to be approved. The same process might not be viable for an online insurance market, where customers look for new products and riders on a regular basis. Hence, the portfolio requires to be updated every few months,” said the head of products in a mid- size life insurance company.
For customers, too, the proposal form would get simpler, with fewer questions, so that the turnaround time to buy insurance is considerably reduced. The regulator has also constituted two groups, one in life insurance and one in general insurance, to explore opportunities in ecommerce.
It is also expected to clarify on the presently grey area of digital signatures.
In a circular, the regulator has said it is inclined to facilitate the promotion of e- commerce in the insurance space, also with the idea of aiding the government’s Digital India project.
The two groups will look at ecommerce opportunities in insurance, recommend technological solutions, suggest regulatory and other facilitation for growth of e- commerce in insurance and so on.
The life group has Sandeep Bakshi, of ICICI Prudential Life, a Life Insurance Corporation of India representative, Pramod Khanna of Hero Corporate Services, Jignesh Gandhi of NSDL Insurance Repositories and Gautam Kumar, deputy director, Irdai, as convenor.
The general insurance group would have Tapan Singhal, chief executive ( CEO), Bajaj Allianz General Insurance; a New India Assurance representative, Tarun Samant, CEO of Tata Motors Insurance Brokers; S V Ramanan, CEO, CAMS Insurance Repository, and N MBehara, deputy director, Irdai, will be convenor.
Life insurers said reforms in the sector are needed. “ The online market is distinct from offline space. Based on customer feedback, we should be allowed to tweak product pricing and features in online products,” said a chief executive.
Business Standard, New Delhi, 7th August 2015

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

RBI deputy governor cautions fintech platform lenders on privacy concerns during loan recovery

By
  India's digital lending infrastructure has made the loan sanctioning system online. Yet, loan recovery still needs a “feet on the street” approach, Swaminathan J, deputy governor of the Reserve Bank of India, said at a media event on Tuesday, September 2, according to news agency ANI.According to the ANI report, the deputy governor flagged that fintech operators in the digital lending segment are giving out loans to customers with poor credit profiles and later using aggressive recovery tactics.“While loan sanctioning and disbursement have become increasingly digital, effective collection and recovery still require a 'feet on the street' and empathetic approach. Many fintech platforms operate on a business model that involves extending small-value loans to customers often with poor credit profiles,” Swaminathan J said.   Fintech platforms' business models The central bank deputy governor highlighted that many fintech platforms' business models involve providing sm
Post a Comment
Read more

Credit card spending growth declines on RBI gaze, stress build-up

By
  Credit card spends have further slowed down to 16.6 per cent in the current financial year (FY25), following the Reserve Bank of India’s tightening of unsecured lending norms and rising delinquencies, and increased stress in the portfolio.Typically, during the festival season (September–December), credit card spends peak as several credit card-issuing banks offer discounts and cashbacks on e-commerce and other platforms. This is a reversal of trend in the past three financial years stretching to FY21 due to RBI’s restrictions.In the previous financial year (FY24), credit card spends rose by 27.8 per cent, but were low compared to FY23 which surged by 47.5 per cent. In FY22, the spending increased 54.1 per cent, according to data compiled by Macquarie Research.ICICI Bank recorded 4.4 per cent gross credit losses in its FY24 credit card portfolio as against 3.2 per cent year-on-year. SBI Cards’ credit losses in the segment stood at 7.4 per cent in FY24 and 6.2 per cent in FY23, the rep
Post a Comment
Read more

India can't rely on wealthy to drive growth: Ex-RBI Dy Guv Viral Acharya

By
  India can’t rely on wealthy individuals to drive growth and expect the overall economy to improve, Viral Acharya, former deputy governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said on Monday.Acharya, who is the C V Starr Professor of Economics in the Department of Finance at New York University’s Stern School of Business (NYU-Stern), said after the Covid-19 pandemic, rural consumption and investments have weakened.We can’t be pumping our growth through the rich and expect that the economy as a whole will do better,” he said while speaking at an event organised by Elara Capital here.f there has to be a trickle-down, it should have actually happened by now,” Acharya said, adding that when the rich keep getting wealthier and wealthier, they have a savings problem.   “The bank account keeps getting bigger, hence they look for financial assets to invest in. India is closed, so our money can't go outside India that easily. So, it has to chase the limited financial assets in the country and
Post a Comment
Read more