The Authority, vide order No. IRDA/F&A/ORD/MISC/151/09/2018 dated 18th September, 2018, had constituted a committee on Regulatory Sandbox in insurance space in India under the Chairmanship of Mr. Randip Singh Jagpal, CGM, IRDAI.
A “Regulatory Sandbox Approach” can be used to carve out a safe and conducive space to experiment with Fin-Tech solutions, and where the consequences of failure can be contained. The objective of Regulatory Sandbox is to facilitate innovations in the insurance sector, make the insurance products more affordable and relevant for the insured and to give a fillip to insurance penetration.
In this context, the Committee had invited suggestions/comments, on the said subject, from all Insurance, Reinsurance companies and Foreign Reinsurance Branches in India.
On the basis of the comments, inputs and advice received, the Committee has drafted the final report on the Regulatory Sandbox.
Following are the key recommendations of the Committee:
1) The purpose of the Regulatory Sandbox is to foster growth and increase the pace of the most innovative companies, in a way that provides Insurtech in particular and the Fintech sector as a whole with flexibility in dealing with regulatory requirements and at the same time focusing on policyholder protection.
2) The Authority should create a core Sandbox Committee having dedicated personnel to monitor and supervise the digital innovation activities, and provide support and advisory to the applicants as envisaged in the draft guidelines. The Committee would facilitate roll out of the experiments and seek to provide the ecosystem required for the experimentation.
3) The Regulatory Sandbox would have defined entry and eligibility criteria, boundary conditions, process flow, timelines and success factors / exit parameters for the applicants, along with appropriate controls for protection and risk management.
4) At the same time, the process and criteria would be flexible to provide a conducive environment for encouraging and enabling a wide variety of experimentation, including provisions for no enforcement action orders, waivers and relaxed reporting requirements.
5) The committee proposes a cohort basis approach for receiving applications. The applicants would include insurers or insurance intermediaries or any other entity other than an individual having a minimum net-worth of Rs 25 lakhs for the last 3 years.
6) The applicant can apply in any one of more of the 5 categories namely insurance solicitation or distribution, insurance products, underwriting, policy & claims servicing and any other. The applicant could apply singly or jointly in one or more than one category, provided that if the category involves insurance product or underwriting, then the applicant necessarily has to partner with an insurer.
7) The permission shall be granted for a period of 6 months which can be extended for another 6 months. In no case can the proposal be allowed to go beyond 12 months. However, if the proposal covers 5,000 persons or completes Rs. 50 lakhs of premium or any other parameter which the Authority specifies, the proposal will deem to have been completed.
8) Strict requirements around confidentiality of policyholder’s data have been proposed.
The report is attached for comments, which may be sent in the enclosed format, on or before 26th February, 2019 to undersigned at randip@irda.gov.in with a copy to Mr. R K Sharma@rksharma@irda.gov.in
