Uniform KYC in the insurance industry is likely to become a reality soon. IRDAI Chairman T S Vijayan said that the insurance regulator is working on putting in place a system to facilitate uniform KYC.
He was speaking on the sidelines of the launch of Registry of Hospital in Network of Insurance (ROHINI) organized by Insurance Information Bureau of India (IIBI) held in Mumbai.
“We are working on a project with Insurance Transaction Exchange (iTrex) to introduce uniform KYC in the insurance industry. This will help intermediaries in a big way,” said Vijayan.
Currently, separate KYC is needed for different insurance policies. For instance, separate KYCs are required to buy a term insurance plan and a health insurance plan. Advisors feel that the existing complications in KYC norms are, to some extent, proving to be deterrent for new investors to buy insurance policies. This is a cause of concern for the insurance industry.
Earlier, IRDA had set up an iTrex in order to facilitate data exchange between the repositories and insurance companies. A policyholder having an electronic Insurance Account (eIA) need not undergo multiple KYCs. However, this facility has not been extended to physical policies yet. IRDAI is planning to leverage iTrex to introduce uniform KYC in physical policies too.