The insurance regulator has decided to do away with offline examinations within a year.
Soon after introducing online examination and training program for insurance brokers, IRDA now plans to completely do away with the offline examinations and trainings within a year.
In a circular, IRDA said, “NIA Pune is in the process of developing a portal for conduct of online training. It is envisaged that training for brokers will be shifted to online mode very soon. In order to facilitate smooth transition, it has been decided to continue with offline training for one more year, from the institutes already recognized by the authority.”
Earlier this month, IRDA has authorized National Insurance Academy (NIA) to conduct online training and examinations. However, the regulator has now accredited all nine training institutes to conduct such exams.
IRDA rules require both Principal Officer and employees of insurance broking firms to undergo theoretical and practical training for soliciting and procuring insurance business.
Last year in December, IRDA had constituted a committee to give recommendation on reducing cost of training and examination, revising syllabus etc. The committee had members from IRDA, Life Insurance Council, General Insurance Council, IBAI and General Insurance Corporate of India.
Based on the recommendation, IRDA has also revised the syllabus of insurance broker examination. “The report of the committee was examined in IRDA and revised syllabus suggested by the committee has been accepted. NIA, Pune has been entrusted the job of preparing the course material as per the revised syllabus based on which the training will be conducted henceforth.”
With this move, the cost of training and examination is expected to come down by more than 50%.
Earlier, IRDA had reduced training hours of insurance brokers from 100 hours to 50 hours in order to reduce costs.