The insurance regulator has formed a joint working group with Life Insurance Council on norms for traditional products.
“The group has already commenced work and had two rounds of discussions. It will give its recommendations soon,” Mr J. Hari Narayan, Chairman, Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority, told Business Line here on Thursday.
The Authority is in the process of framing a new set of guidelines for traditional life insurance products. “This can be expected very soon,” Mr Hari Narayan said.
The regulator sees lack of clarity in certain class of insurance products. “Post Budget this year, some products have lesser or no IT benefits. This has to be clearly spelt out,” the IRDA chief said.
Further, the dividing line between the participatory products (those with fixed returns) and non-participatory products was also not clear.
APPROVALS
The IRDA has also withheld approvals to some products filed by insurers for introducing in the market.
“They are not sound products and may adversely impact policyholders’ interests. We wrote about the same to the companies,” he said.
In last one/two months, the IRDA had approved 100 products and rejected or withheld permissions to over 30, Mr Hari Narayan said.
There has been a view in the industry that there has been ‘undue’ delay in clearing product filings.
HEALTH PLANS
On the recently released draft guidelines for health insurance policies, Mr Hari Narayan said the Ministry of Health had sought more time to send its feedback on the draft.
“But I don’t want to give much time. The feedback from all stakeholders will be sent to advisory council before finalisation,” he said. The final guidelines could be expected in about two months from now, he added.
The draft guidelines propose to make it mandatory for insurers to settle claims within 10 days of receipt of documents and non-denial of health insurance to anybody who is under 65 years of age, among others.