Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Insurance Bill: IRDA To Control Agent Commission - Dec 23, 2008

The government along with the IRDA taking a shot at making the insurers more accountable has said that every insurance company will have to report the details of management expenses to the insurance regulator. Apart from this, the commission payment or any other remuneration to an insurance agent or an intermediary will now be governed by the regulations set by IRDA.

Along with this, no insurer will be allowed to reject a claim if the policy has been in existence for 5 years and this will be good news for life insurance policyholders with even old claims being rejected on various grounds. And now it will be the Securities Appellate Tribunal that will settle the dispute cases between the insurers and the regulator. Whereas earlier the cases drag on in civil courts.

Besides this, the insurers will also have to pay an annual fee and register themselves to avoid their license getting cancelled. But on the other hand, the insurers will get more flexibility in hiring of agents. IRDA will not issue agent licenses anymore and instead it will now be left to the insurers.

For instance, the new FDI cap will be 49 per cent and Indian promoters will not be mandated to divest their stake to 26 per cent. The norms for holding equity and transferring capital have been made stringent. On the top of that, shareholders voting rights will be restricted to equity shares held by them, prior approval of IRDA will be needed if anyone plans to transfer more than 1 per cent of the paid-up equity capital of the insurer. Not just this, but reinsurers can open branches in India. All this, only after the parliament gives its nod to the bill.

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