Irda seeks Life Insurance Council's views on IPO norms

The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (Irda) has sought the Life Insurance Council's views on a revised draft of the proposed new guidelines for IPOs by insurers.

Sources said the insurance regulator has sent a revised copy of the draft IPO guidelines to the council, seeking its comments prior to finalisation of the IPO guidelines for life insurance companies.

Deliberations on allowing insurance companies to list on the bourses have been going on between capital markets regulator Sebi and Irda for nearly three years now.

The Sebi had in October last year given the go-ahead to insurance companies for coming out with IPOs. Under the current Sebi law, companies which have a track record of three successive years profit and have been in business for 10 years are allowed to list on the bourses.

Several of the insurance joint ventures, including Reliance Life, are about to complete 10 years of operations in India, while HDFC Standard Life and ICICI Prudential Life have already completed a decade of business here.

At present, besides state-owned LIC, 22 private companies are offering life insurance policies. Over the last 10 years, the industry's assets grew seven-fold to over Rs 14 lakh crore.

As per the disclosure norms in the offer document mandated by Sebi, the insurers would have disclose risk factors specific to their companies.

Also, the offer document would have a glossary of terms used in the insurance sector.