Irdai Working Group bats for introduction of index-linked insurance plans

With investment markets turning volatile, customers are preferring guaranteed products. This, in turn, has increased the balance sheet risk for insurers

A working group of the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) has called for the need to reintroduce index-linked insurance products. This comes at a time when the investment markets are volatile, resulting in customers preferring guaranteed returns. This, in turn, has increased the balance sheet risk of insurers. 

Hence, the working group is of the opinion that the index-linked insurance products can be an appropriate alternative or complimentary option to the current conventional guaranteed products and unit-linked policies.

The regulator had prevented insurance firms from selling these products in 2013. Prior to that, insurers were aggressively selling