GIFT city regulator seeks comments on draft insurance web aggregator rules

GIFT city regulator International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA) has invited comments from the general public and stakeholders on the proposed Insurance Web Aggregator Regulations, 2021. The public and stakeholders comments on the draft regulations have to be submitted by December 20.

The draft regulations say the authority while considering an application for granting registration as insurance web aggregator will take into account the fact that the applicant is not appointed / registered as an insurance agent, corporate agent, micro- insurance agent, third party aggregator, surveyor and loss assessor, insurance marketing firm or any other insurance intermediary.

Also, the applicant should not have a referral arrangement with an insurer. Further, the draft regulation say, in case the group entities of the applicant are engaged in the business of insurance intermediation, then the applicant has to ensure that there is no conflict of interest of any kind and the interests of policyholders are not compromised. The applicant has to ensure that it has a designated website hosted on a server based in India.

Also, an applicant seeking registration as an insurance web aggregator has to maintain a minimum paid-up capital of $ 30, 000 and net-worth equal to 100 per cent of the minimum paid-up capital.