It has been more than 6 years since the life insurance industry embarked upon product regulations to address the problems of high costs, heavy exit penalties and poor insurance cover. The new product regulations—‘linked insurance product regulations’ and ‘non-linked insurance product regulation’—which looked at most of these issues came into effect in 2014. And now, 3 years later, the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (Irdai) has constituted a committee to review the provisions of these regulations.
The eight member committee will be chaired by Amitabh Chaudhry, chief executive officer and managing director, HDFC Standard Life Insurance Co. Ltd. The committee would review product regulations in light of current market environment, policyholders’ interests and distribution incentives. It will also review the recommendations of the Sumit Bose Committee, which had some big bang suggestions.