IRDA issues guidelines for e-insurance policies

In order to reduce transaction costs and ensure swift modifications in insurance policies, the sectoral regulator Irda today unveiled guidelines for issuing them electronically. It also laid down the guidelines for repositories, which compile and store data about policyholders on behalf of insurance companies. Now, insurance companies can sell all the polices, be it life, pension and non-life, in the electronic form. Irda said that making available e-insurance policies would bring about efficiency, transparency and cost reduction in issuing and maintaining them.

The guidelines state that an insurer issuing 'e-insurance policies,' shall have to take services of a registered repository. A certified insurance repository has to have a net worth of at least Rs 25 crore, without any foreign investment, and wherein no insurance company can hold over 10 per cent or hold any managerial position. Further, the guidelines said that an insurer can enter into an agreement with one or more insurance repositories for maintaining the electronic insurance policies.

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