Three months after Panda's exit, Irdai chairperson post remains vacant

Absence of a regulator stalls key insurance reforms including Bima Trinity, composite licence, and risk-based capital framework

The vacant office of the chairperson of the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (Irdai) is experiencing something similar to what had happened three years ago.

 

Debasish Panda had taken charge as chairperson in March 2022 after the office had been vacant for nearly 10 months, following the departure of Subhash Chandra Khuntia.

 

Now, nearly three months have elapsed since Panda completed his term as chairperson and yet the position remains unfilled.

 

The Ministry of Finance had invited applications for the post with the last date for submission being April 6.

 

Now many initiatives Panda had spearheaded are uncertain. The first is the launch of Bima trinity — Bima Sugam, Bima Vistaar, and Bima Vahak — the project to create an Amazon-like digital platform for buying, selling, and servicing insurance policies to drive insurance penetration, which is low even 25 years after the industry opened up to private players.

 

Bima Sugam will be a one-stop digital marketplace supposed to streamline buying, managing, and claiming insurance policies while Bima Vahak is supposed to be a localised women-centric field force that will take insurance to the doorstep of people who need it most.

 

Bima Vistaar will be a composite product covering death, personal accident, property, and surgical hospitalisation. 

 

The idea, proposed by Panda in 2022, has seen several projected launch dates -- January 2023, June 2024, August 2024, April 2025, and, most recently, mid-2025.

 

“Although the Irdai seat had been vacant earlier too, this time it is all the more important because there are large-scale changes which have been undertaken under the last regulator,” said Vivek Iyer, partner and financial services risk leader, Grant Thornton Bharat.

 

“The industry is looking at composite licences, and 100 per cent foreign direct investment (FDI) has been announced in insurance. Also, there is risk-based capital. The rollout of IFRS 17 (International Financial Reporting Standards 17) will have implications for the industry. These are some key game changers in the insurance industry and to drive this you need to have an insurance regulator that will move it faster. Mainly, when 100 per cent FDI is announced, the lack of a regulator affects investor sentiment because it signifies delays in decision making,” he added. 

 

Among other initiatives are a risk-based capital framework and a risk-based supervision framework.

 

Under Panda, Irdai was nudging players of a certain vintage and size to be listed. Very few of the legacy companies have done so.

 

Recently, Irdai  asked several of them to prepare a road map for listing.

 

Further, amendments proposed by the regulator, especially the idea of a composite licence that would allow companies to do all lines of business, including life, health, and general, has also been delayed.

 

Meanwhile, despite a regulatory and government push, surety bonds — stated to be an alternative to bank guarantees — have not gained as much traction as was initially expected. This is largely due to legal challenges in recovery, as insurers are not treated on a par with banks under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC).

 

Also, the insurance industry is going through low growth, with life insurance registering just 5 per cent growth and non-life insurers recording only 6 per cent growth in FY25. Further, misselling insurance products in the bancassurance channel is something that has made the financial regulators sit up and take notice, with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) planning to come up with suitable guidelines to address the misselling of financial products and services by its regulated entities, the central bank said in its agenda for this financial year (FY26).