Insurance sector regulator IRDA today said guidelines to allow life insurance companies to raise funds from the capital market will be out by the end of this month.

“They (Life insurers companies) will be completing 10 years (in business) later this year. Our IPO guidelines must be in place before that... by the end of this month,” IRDA Chairman, Mr J. Harinarayan, told presspersons on the sidelines of FICCI National Conference on Insurance.

Discussions for allowing listing of insurance companies on the bourses have been going on between capital market regulator SEBI and the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) for nearly three years now.

Under the current SEBI law, companies can get listed on the bourses after they finish 10 years of operations.

IRDA is likely to allow public float by only those companies, which are in the business for at least 10 years and have a track record of three successive years of profit.

Several private sector insurers, including Reliance Life and HDFC Standard Life, have shown interest in tapping the capital market to augment their resource base.

Several of the insurance joint ventures, including Reliance Life, are about to complete 10 years of operations in India, whereas HDFC Standard Life has already completed a decade of business here.

At the moment, besides state-owned Life Insurance Corporation, 22 private companies are offering life insurance policies.

On the issue of hiking premium rates for motor insurance covers, Mr Harinarayan said that IRDA was finalising the premium rate, which would insulate insurers from the losses.

Insurers have incurred losses of about Rs 3,500 crore loss in the current fiscal on account of motor insurance.

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