Policy documents to be now available in regional languages.
IRDA has asked insurance companies to maintain a minimum font size of 7 in ‘Times New Roman’ in the policy documents issued to policyholders. Through a draft circular, IRDA said, “In order to ensure that the policyholders and beneficiaries of insurance policies are not at discomfort while using the forms with insignificant prints, there is a need to maintain a reasonable font size in all the forms by all insurers.Therefore, all insurance companies are advised to use a minimum print equivalent to font “Times New Roman - size no. 7” or above in respect of all the forms that are made available to both prospects and policyholders both during the course of granting the cover and subsequent policy servicing.”
The insurance regulator has also asked insurers to issue policy documents in regional languages recognized under the Constitution of India.” Considering the geographic spread of the business of insurance and multi-lingual diversity of the Indian populace across the length and breadth of the country, a need is felt to advise Insurers to make available all the policy servicing forms in languages recognized under the Constitution of India,” said IRDA.
IRDA said that the insurance companies can make available such forms on their website so that the forms can be easily accessed or downloaded by the policyholders.
Also, the insurance regulator has assured insurers that the process will not have significant impact on their costs. IRDA said that the move will promote confidence of policyholders and increase transparency thereby benefiting the insurance companies.