IRDAI gives green signal to 6 new web aggregators

IRDAI has published a fresh list of web aggregators who comply with the new web aggregator regulations. It has allowed 16 players to start web aggregation business in India.

While three entities – Accurax, Voila and I Call Soft exited web aggregation business, six new entities – Policybazaar, Easy Policy, Mint Wise, MSF, Compare Policy and Boon Insurance received IRDAI go ahead to float web aggregation business in India.

Web aggregators compile and provide information about insurance policies of various companies on a website. IRDAI has mandated web aggregators to provide unbiased information of insurance products on different types of policies like whole life insurance, term plan, health insurance, endowment, annuity etc. on their portals.  

Unlike earlier, these web aggregators cannot display any ratings, rankings, endorsements or bestseller insurance products on their websites. Also, these websites cannot display any advertisements on their portals.

In addition, they will have to put in place a system for recording and monitoring complaints and ensure that they communicate with customers through phone, email, messaging etc.

Web aggregators can charge an annual fee of Rs 50,000 per product for displaying its feature on their websites. They can also charge for services at fixed rates for any other outsourcing work like collection of premiums from customers, etc. Through sales, they can charge a maximum of 30% of first year premium as commissions. However, they cannot charge anything for putting in place a system for maintaining database, infrastructure, training or communication.

IFAs can also use these websites to compare policies.

Updated list of web aggregators as on March 9, 2016

Source: IRDAI