Insurance sector

In a statement, IRDAI clarified that it has not taken any decision on this matter. Furthermore, the IRDAI will hold extensive consultations with all stakeholders before any such decision is taken. Insurance intermediaries like agents and brokers voiced their views against the proposal to make it mandatory to specify the amount of commission paid on the policy document.

Industry officials told IANS that the IRDAI has not licensed any new insurer during the past couple of years. And that situation is expected to change in the near future with some of the applications are in advanced stages of processing at IRDAI.

When asked by IANS, industry officials kept a stoic silence as the companies are raking in money from the motor insurance portfolio. At a time when the industry is lobbying for more regulatory relaxations, barring one or two CEOs, others are mum, when it comes to policyholder friendly moves like scrapping of administrative pricing for motor third party premium.

The Indian insurance regulator should move cautiously while making changes to the over two decade old regulations that seems to have prevented companies going belly up like several finance companies, said experts. The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) has made some regulatory changes and is also mulling more.

Pushing for further regulatory relaxations in the insurance sector, the captains of life and non-life insurers will be meeting Debasish Panda, Chairman of Insurance Regulatory Authority of India (IRDAI) on June 30 and July 1 at Hyderabad. The meeting is part of Panda's earlier promise of meeting the industry captains every two months, a senior industry official not wanting to be quoted told IANS.

Happy with the winds of change, the sector wants more relaxation. The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) under its new Chairman Debasish Panda has been reviewing various sectoral regulations and is the process of relaxing many of them. The IRDAI has slashed the number of offline returns submitted by the life insurers to four from 40 and the online returns to five from eight.

According to homegrown consultancy firm Redseer, new online distribution models such as business to consumer (B2C), business to business (B2B) and business to business to consumer (B2B2C) are key drivers of growth, with B2C, in particular, gaining significant opportunities.

Jamisson Buck, a life insurance agent at Policygenius, wrote in a LinkedIn post late on Thursday that the company has made the "extremely difficult decision to lay off 25 per cent of its staff". "I unfortunately was part of that layoff. I want to thank the entire team for the last 19 months. It's now time to search for the next opportunity," wrote Buck.

The insurance company's consolidated income from net premium income during the quarter rose nearly 18 per cent to Rs 144,158 lakh crore, the earnings report shared with the exchanges showed. This is the first earnings results reported by the company after it went public on the exchanges earlier this month. It has recommended a dividend of Rs 1.5 per equity share for FY22, which is subject to approval of shareholders in the annual general meeting, the filing said. The shares of the much-awaited LIC made a weak listing on the stock exchanges on May 17. It listed on the stock exchanges at a discount of 8.62 per cent at Rs 867, from its IPO issue price of Rs 949.

The company's Board of Directors has declared an interim dividend of Rs 2.25 per equity share (on face value of Rs 5 each) for the year under review. During FY22, the GIC Re earned a gross premium income of Rs 43,208.46 crore as compared to Rs 47,014.38 crore for the year ended on March 31, 2021. Last fiscal the reinsurer had earned an after tax profit of Rs.2,005.74 crore as compared to Rs 1,920.44 crore logged in FY21.