Insurance

The discretion to pay first year commission has been left to insurance companies.

Only 4-5 players (individuals and entities) have approached IRDAI to float Insurance Marketing Firms.

The company was found to have made hefty payments towards updating and sharing of database.

Central Excise Intelligence said that these companies paid commissions to car manufacturers and dealers of up to 45% who are not authorized agents to distribute motor insurance policies.

The scheme guarantees an annual return of 9%.

The company was found to have violated various norms like offering hefty discounts to a few policyholders, soliciting insurance policies through unauthorized agents and issuing policies without proposal forms on renewals and receiving direct business from its sponsor.

Also, the regulator has instructed insurance companies to deploy unclaimed funds in money market instruments or fixed deposit of scheduled banks.

The growth was largely on account of LIC which contributed more than 70% to the overall industry’s new business premium collection.

The insurance regulator has sought to rationalize the commission structure by including expenses incurred on agents in the form of junket, loyalty program etc. within the overall upfront commission.

The committee will give its recommendations on the process of recovering service tax from insurance agents.

The insurance regulator is expected to with a circular regarding the same.

Number of agents declined from 21.7 lakh in June 2014 to 20.1 lakh in June 2015.

Both the companies were found to have paid additional commissions to their corporate agents.

Both the groups are expected to submit their reports on the opportunities of leveraging e-commerce in insurance.