IRDA to end licensing system for insurance agents

Regulator has also been planning to treat health insurance as a stand-alone segment

Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) today said the insurance companies can appoint individual agents on their own from April 1.

Under the current mechanism the insurance regulator grants license to a person to become an agent of an insurance company. "Now the appointment of agents is given to the insurance companies. So the whole licensing system will go," IRDAI chairman T S Vijayan said.

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of an event organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) on Thursday, Vijayan said the new system pertaining to the appointment of insurance agents will come into effect from the next financial year.

According to Vijayan, the regulator has also been planning to treat health insurance, which is a part of non-life insurance activity, as a stand-alone segment. "Currently there are two lines of business--life and non-life. Health comes under non-life. We would like to frame a separate regulation for health insurance," he said. Earlier he released a CII report titled 'India Insurance Vision 2015: Building a $ 250 billion customer centric and value creating industry

Replying to a question he said a move to allow the foreign reinsurance companies to do business in India by just opening a branch here without getting incorporated is also on the cards.

The CII report suggested steps that are expected to help Life Insurance industry to grow at 12% CAGR over the next decade to reach $ 160 to $175 billion while the Non-Life to grow at 22% CAGR to reach a Gross Written Premium of $ 80 billion.