Irdai approves amendments, simplifies rules to set up insurance firms

The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (Irdai) on Friday approved amendments to rules on registering insurance companies and investing in them.

Private equity (PE) funds can now directly put in money in insurance companies, and investment by them through special purpose vehicles (SPVs) has been made optional, thus providing flexibility.

This has been a long-standing demand of PE players looking to invest in insurance.

Under the current guidelines, to invest in insurance companies as “promoter”, a PE fund can do so only through an SPV.

But if the PE fund is investing in an insurance company as “investor”,