What would you call a regulation that is titled Protection of Policyholders’ Interests, but is anti-consumer in its direction and intent? The draft regulation by the same name released by the insurance regulator on 1 February 2017 (you can read it here: bit.ly/2l9NpgI) has removed some basic consumer-first provisions that an earlier 2014 draft had suggested. As investors and consumers of financial products, we should worry about this.
Over the past few years the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (Irdai) has made several moves that are glaringly anti-consumer: hiking agent commissions, legalising what were earlier illegal payments to agents (bit.ly/2nr4hja) and allowing insurers to sell policies that lapse, and making consumers lose their invested amounts (bit.ly/2omsXH0), stand out amongst many other actions of an anti-consumer regulator.
