IRDAI has constituted a single database of 21 lakh insurance agents on the newly formed insurance intermediary portal by Insurance Information Bureau (IIB).
In its latest frequently asked questions (FAQ) for insurance agents and intermediaries, IRDAI has said, “PAN is currently used as primary source of identification to collect the details of an agent from the database maintained by the IRDAI. Hence, by providing Pan no. of an agent the aspirant can collect details of that particular agent.”
Earlier, IRDAI had instructed insurance companies to upload the details of their 21 lakh agents on the insurance intermediary portal. In addition, the insurance regulator has also created a database of other insurance intermediaries like brokers, corporate agents and web aggregators.
IIB has been uploading this database on its newly launched centralised database portal for intermediaries called ENVOY. IIB had developed this platform to keep a record of all point-of-sale persons (POSP). However, IRDAI has now extended it to all the other insurance intermediaries.
IRDAI believes that this will help them monitor insurance agents and intermediaries. In a circular issued last year, IRDAI had said, “ln an endeavour to ensure that all licensed insurance sales persons working for insurers and intermediaries including entities such as insurance agents, broker, specified persons of corporate agents, web aggregators and point-of-sales persons (POSP) do not work with multiple insurers in the same business category, IRDAI has initiated the central database.”
IRDAI has clarified that it will not maintain the details of remuneration of agents on this database. “The regulator is neither statutorily required to collect the details of income, commission or benefits gained by an agent nor filed by the regulated entities periodically. As such, no data is available with the regulator,” said IRDAI.
Meanwhile, in the FAQ, the insurance regulator has also clarified the insurance companies will have to incentivize their distributors within the prescribed commission structure.
