New Delhi, February 6: The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDAI) has formed a panel to assess the desirability and feasibility of formation of standalone micro-insurance companies. The initiative is intended to protect low -income people with affordable insurance products, and help them cope with and recover from financial losses.
The 10-member panel under Mirai Chatterjee, director of SEWA in Ahmedabad, will develop a concept paper that seeks to boost the penetration of such companies across geographies within India.
According to IRDAI, the panel will review the existing legal and regulatory framework to enable a standalone micro-insurance company after analysing similar provisions in other jurisdiction. The committee is expected to submit its recommendations within three months.
The panel will also consider the aspect of ease-of-doing-business, suggest on the applicability and or relaxation of extant Act and regulatory provisions for the proposed micro-insurance company, which may be registered as an insurer, noted the IRDAI order.
Further, the panel will also consider indicative regulatory aspects such as capital and solvency, underwriting, product and claims, finance and accounting, investments, operations and corporate governance.
In a separate order, the competent authority said that another 6-member committee, under Yegna Priya Bharat, chief general manager (non-life insurance) of the IRDAI, has been set up to work on designing of combi products for micro-insurance segment.
This committee will work on designing a concept to make micro-insurance, life and non-life insurance and health products simple, affordable and easy to understand for poor class of people, including those working in the informal sector, the IRDAI order said.