The final guidelines on traditional life insurance products, which are in the final stages of consultation, are likely to be announced after the meeting of the insurance advisory committee that is slated to take place on February 8, Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) chairman J Hari Narayan said here recently.
“The insurance advisory committee has considered these guidelines and these will be presented before the authority (IRDA) soon. The authority will be meeting on February 8 after which they will be gazetted,” he told newspersons on the sidelines of graduation ceremony of Institute of Insurance and Risk Management (IIRM) and ICICI Lombard’s first batch of PG risk and general insurance programme.
Narayan said IRDA had notified that the insurers selling traditional group plans such as term plans and endowment plans have to withdraw and re-file them by March 31 while the deadline for traditional individual plans is June 30. However, this move has not gone down well with the insurers, who claim that the decision is impractical and will hit growth. Reacting to this opposition, he said, “There is never such a thing as a right time for improving practices. In fact, my idea is the opposite. They have to introduce new good models when the industry is down.” However, he added that the new products that are being launched in the market are in line with the new regulations.
Talking about the performance of the sector, he said it was expected to record a flattish growth this fiscal despite assets under management of the Indian insurers slated to touch the Rs 20 lakh crore mark. However, the general insurance sector was expected to clock an 18% growth this fiscal, he said. The insurance sector has grown substantially over the last few years, with its assets under management growing from Rs 8 lakh crore in 2008 to Rs 18 lakh crore in 2011-12, he added.
On international insurers like New York Life and ING fleeing the Indian market, he said, “Many of these players are withdrawing mainly because of the economic concerns back in their own countries. This will not affect the interests of the policy holders as IRDA’s primary work is to protect them.”
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