Insurance repositories will help policy holders to buy and keep their insurance policies in electronic form. It will hold electronic records of insurance policies issued to policy holders. Policyholders can merge all policies like health, motor, life insurance etc. in a single account. This service is expected to provide convenience and transparency, thereby reducing cost, paper work and risk of loss of documents.
Earlier, the insurance regulator has granted IR licenses to five entities – NSDL Database Management, Central Insurance Repository, SHCIL Projects, Karvy Insurance Repository and CAMS Repository Services.
A policy holder needs to open an e Insurance Account (eIA) with an Insurance Repository to be able to buy and keep policies issued by various insurers in electronic mode – be it life, pension, health or general. This account opening is free of cost to the account holder. A policy holder can also convert existing policies into electronic form simply by submitting a request with their insurers.
Also, IRDA has set up an Insurance Transaction Exchange (iTrex) in order to facilitate data interchange between the repositories and insurance companies.
On this occasion, Chidambaram has released the Handbook on Insurance Repositories whereas Takru released the consumer education material. Chidambaram advised the IRDA members to come out with an action plan to ensure availability of all Insurance Policies in the repository. He also recommended them to work for greater persistency and increase the usage of web aggregation space for the growth of industry. He asked them to increase the financial education measurers and start a campaign to promote the benefits of life insurance.