Final bancassurance guidelines by next month: Irda

The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (Irda) is expected to release the final bancassurance guidelines next month, said Sudhin Roy Chowdhury, member (life), Irda here on Saturday.

“I hope it (final guidelines) should be in place by next month. We had a lot of debate and now we are trying to tie up all the loose ends. The whole idea was that all insurance company should get a pie of the bank. It should not be the prerogative of one bank one insurance company, only then you can grow,” said Chowdhury. He was in the city to attend the insurance summit organised by the Indian Chamber of Commerce.

Insurers’ demand to have the option to tie up with five or more banks is under consideration, he added. According to the existing regulations, a bank can only tie up with one life, one non-life and one health insurance company.

Of the total 80,000 bank branches, only 20,000-30,000 are selling insurance. “So, if they also start selling the products a lot of growth can be achieved,” said Chowdhury.

Meanwhile, the regulator has set up a subsidiary, Insurance Information Bureau (IIB), to lay more focus on analytics that will help collating data for the industry.  Chowdhury said that this will provide more clarity about the data used in the industry, resulting in better implementation.

He sounded hopeful about the industry witnessing a double-digit growth this year on the back of dip in  realty and gold prices.