Insurance sector regulator IRDA said on Friday that final guidelines to allow life insurance companies to raise resources from the capital market will be out by end-June.

“The exposure draft has been released. We are awaiting comments of various stakeholders, including the public. I expect the comments to be available in another week's time. Final guidelines will be out certainly by June-end,” Mr J. Hari Narayan, IRDA Chairman, told newspersons on the sidelines of a seminar here.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) had in October last year given its nod for insurance companies to come up with initial public offerings (IPOs). The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) has been working on the IPO norms for life insurance companies for over three years now.

Meanwhile, Mr Hari Narayan also said on Friday that the IRDA was considering a proposal to allow banks to sell products of two insurance companies each in life and non-life segments. Currently, banks are allowed to sell products of one company each in life, non-life and health insurance segments.

“The committee has recommended that banks be allowed to tie-up with two insurers. We are in the process of examining the recommendations”, Mr Hari Narayan said.

Grievance redressal

The IRDA Chairman was here for the launch of the Integrated Grievance Management System (IGMS), which is an online portal that would help policyholders in effectively addressing their grievances. The IGMS was launched by Mr S. K.Sharma, Secretary, Department of Financial Services.

IGMS is a comprehensive solution that provides a centralised and online access to the policyholders. It also provides complete access and control to the IRDA for monitoring grievance disposal by insurance companies.

This portal also enables detailed analysis that would help identify issues of concern for the policyholder. IGMS will have the ability to classify different complaint types based on predefined rules. This system will be able to assign, store and track unique complaint IDs and also enable intimation to various stakeholders as required, within the workflow.

>krsrivats@thehindu.co.in

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