Comments
The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) has asked insurers to open more bricks-and-mortar branches alongside stepping up digital offerings.
“Physical presence through brick-and-mortar offices leads a long way in gaining customer confidence particularly in remote locations of the country. Adoption of technology infrastructure to reach out to customers enhances ease, a physical approach which can come in handy to reach the last mile,’‘ the regulator said in a master circular on operations.
To instil confidence in customers through visibility, the opening or closing of business units must be done judiciously, safeguarding the interests of policyholders, the regulator said.
Places of business should be opened within a year from the date of approval, after which it would lapse.
Overseas liaison office
To open a representative or liaison office outside India, the board of the insurer should approve all the related operational matters.
“The insurer should have appropriate arrangements to ensure that the policyholders’ liabilities that arise out of foreign operations are adequately ring-fenced in order to protect interests of the policyholders residing in India,’‘ it said.
A representative or liaison office outside India can undertake development and promotional activities such as gathering financial, economic and commercial information, educating prospects about advantages of insurance, and so on.
They can also promote the company’s products, offer customer service, identify prospects of the host country, and conduct seminars to create awareness on insurance, apart from liaison with foreign brokers and re-insurers for ceding/ accepting reinsurance, and support for formalising treaties.
Life insurance offices
As per IRDAI data, there were 11,256 life insurance offices as on March 31, 2023, which is an increase of 196 from the previous year. Around 59 per cent of life insurance offices are in Tier I centres with population of one lakh and above. About 0.76 per cent are in Tier VI centres with population less than 5,000.
The public sector life insurer had offices in 688 of the 750 districts (92 per cent) in the country, whereas private sector insurers had offices in 604 districts (81 per cent). Public and private insurers together covered 92 per cent of districts.
Non-life insurers
General and health insurers were operating from 9,917 offices as against 10,775 offices as on March 31, 2022. When compared to the previous year, there has been decrease of 1,148 offices for public sector general insurers, an increase of 129 offices for private sector general insurers, , and a decrease of one office for specialised insurers and 162 offices for standalone health insurers. Overall, there is a decrease of 858 non-life insurance offices as compared to the previous year.
Comments
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.