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IRDAI-Bima Vahak Guidelines.

IRDAI vide its circular dated June 01, 2023 has issued a Draft of Bima Vahak (BV) Guidelines (Guidelines) and have called for comments/suggestions from stakeholders, and they are requested to submit the same on or before 5:00 PM of 22nd June, 2023.

These guidelines have been issued to establish a dedicated distribution channel that is primarily focused on creating awareness as well as enhancing the insurance inclusion in every Gram Panchayat, thereby improving accessibility of Insurance all over the country. The channel is also expected to Identify and develop people locally, who understand and appreciate local needs within every Gram Panchayat and encouraging/onboarding of women who can secure trust of locals as Bima Vahaks for distribution and servicing of insurance products.

The Guidelines speak about two types of Bima Vahaks:

  • Corporate Bima Vahaks (CBV) : means any legal person registered in accordance with the laws of India and engaged by an Insurer under these Guidelines.
  • Individual Bima Vahaks (IBV) : means any Individual either appointed by an Insurer or appointed by a CBV.

The guidelines further elaborate Upon:

1. Engagement/appointment of Bima Vahak (BV) :

  • To facilitate policy and claims servicing, insurers may engage the services of a CBV and/or directly appoint IBVs.
  • Any insurer appointing a CBV or IBV shall be responsible for their actions and conduct.
  • The CBVs shall: Try to facilitate policy and claims servicing only through their IBVs; Shall appoint IBVs according to their agreement with the Insurers.
  • Insurers and CBVs shall not engage: IBVs appointed by another CBV or other Insurer; Insurance Agents, PoSPs or any other insurance intermediary as BVs; IBVs and CBVs with the intent or purpose of outsourcing of any activity.
  • A BV shall: Sell and service the ‘Bima Vistaar’ product and any other product specifically approved by IRDAI for the purpose; Work with only one life insurer, one general insurer and one health insurer and additionally wherever permitted by the Authority, with the Agriculture Insurance Company of India Ltd.
  • Every Insurer is required to implement a Board approved policy (to be reviewed periodically) governing the IBVs and CBVs, which shall include: Terms of their appointment/engagement; Norms for allocation of territory to them, specifying mandatory residency in the Gram Panchayats; Educational qualifications and training standards of IBVs and their continuing professional development; Scope of permitted activities that includes their duties and responsibilities; Code of conduct; Operational workflow and standards, including:
  • manner, mode and remittance timelines for receipt of insurance premiums;
  • requirement to mandatorily use of ‘electronic handheld devices; Norms for setting up and operation of retail outlets by CBVs; Norms for deployment of technology, electronic handheld devices and training inputs for BVs; Protection of confidentiality of policyholder; Norms for payment of Commission; Operational and compliance requirement; Database of policies solicited through BVs; Grievance redressal;
  • Every Insurer shall try to engage IBVs and CBVs to achieve maximum coverage of every Gram Panchayat. The Lead Insurers of each State/UT shall deploy resources to endure maximum coverage of Gram Panchayats as per following structure:

S. No

Insurer

Deployment of Bima Vahaks

at each Gram Panchayat

1.

Lead Life Insurer

40%

2.

Lead Non-Life Insurer

40%

3.

Lead Health Insurer

5%

4.

All other Insurers together

minimum 15%

2. Scope of Activities of BVs:

Collection of proposal, KYC Documents, coordination and support in policy and claim services.

3. KYC Compliance:

Primary responsibility of KYC and AML compliance shall be with the Insurers only.

4. Collection of premium and remittance to Insurer:

Insurers shall make available:

  • all modes of payment for premium collection and encourage BVs to adopt electronic payment processes directly to the bank account of the insurer;
  • immediate acknowledgements directly to the policyholders in local and regional languages besides English and Hindi.

5. Internal Controls and Infrastructure:

Insurer are required to have systems, infrastructure and controls to enable interface with BVs for providing support services.

6. Termination of Bima Vahak:

If an IBV is terminated, insurance policies serviced by the BV shall be transferred to another BV preferably in the same territory. The Insurer are required to make arrangements for uninterrupted services.

7. Complaints Handling Officer:

For complaints, the insurers are required to identify their nearest local office to each Gram Panchayat and designate a Complaints Handling Officer with a procedure for grievance redressal.

8. Consumer Protection Measures:

  • Insurers and CBVs are to issue physical ID cards to each IBV, and supplementary ‘electronic ID’s’ with ‘expiry date’;
  • Each CBV at its retail outlet shall display its name, appointing insurer, telephone number of branch or controlling officer of the insurer along with services offered, contact details of Grievance Redressal Officer, Complaints Handling Officer and the Insurance Ombudsman.

The authority seeks to submit their Comments / suggestions on the proposed Guidelines may be offered in the specified format on or before June 22, 2023 to life@irdai.gov.in .

For the sake of reference, it may be mentioned that the Authority vide its order bearing Ref No: IRDAI/LIFE/ORD/MISC/223/10/2022 dated October 21, 2022 has constituted a Committee to study and recommend on “Bima Vahak” and Bima Vistaar”.

The Committee was constituted of the following members.

Sr.

Name

Designation and Organization

Role in Committee

1

Shri. Thomas M. Devasia,

Member (Non-Life) – Chairperson

Member (Non-Life)

Chairperson

2

Shri. Siddhartha Mohanty,

MD, LIC of India – Member

MD, LIC of India

Member

3

Smt. Neerja Kapur,

CMD, New India Assurance GIC – Member

CMD, New India Assurance GIC

Member

4

Shri. Devesh Shrivastava,

CMD GIC Re – Member

CMD GIC Re

Member

5

Shri. N.S. Kannan,

MD & CEO, ICICI Prudential LIC – Member

MD & CEO, ICICI Prudential LIC

Member

6

Smt. Vibha Padalkar,

MD & CEO, HDFC LIC – Member

MD & CEO, HDFC LIC

Member

7

Shri. Bhargav Dasgupta,

MD & CEO, ICICI Lombard GIC – Member

MD & CEO, ICICI Lombard GIC

Member

8

Shri. Ritesh Kumar,

MD & CEO, HDFC Ergo GIC – Member

MD & CEO, HDFC Ergo GIC

Member

9

Shri. Tapan Kumar Singhel,

MD & CEO, Bajaj Allianz GIC – Member

MD & CEO, Bajaj Allianz GIC

Member

10

Shri. Naveen Tahiliyani,

MD, TATA AIA LIC – Member

MD, TATA AIA LIC

Member

11

Shri. Hadi T Riachi,

CEO Swiss RE – Member

CEO Swiss RE

Member

12

Shri. Anuj Gulati,

MD & CEO, Care H. Insurance Ltd, –

Member

MD & CEO, Care Health Insurance Ltd,

Member

13

Shri. Pritesh Chaubey,

AA, SBI LIC – Member

AA, SBI LIC

Member

14

Shri. Biresh Giri,

AA, Acko GIC – Member

AA, Acko GIC

Member

15

President,

Insurance Brokers Association –Member

President , Insurance Brokers Association

Member

16

President,

LI Insurance Agents Fed. of India –Member

President, Life Insurance Agents Federation of India

Member

17

President,

All India GI Agents’ Association – Member

President, All India General Insurance Agents’ Association

Member

18

Shri Deepak Yohannan,

CEO,MIC Insurance WA Pvt Ltd- Member

CEO,MIC Insurance WA Pvt Ltd

Member

19

Shri Deependra Kumar Yadav,

Principal officer, SBI,HO-Member

Pricipal officer, SBI,HO

Member

20

Principal officer,

WC Wallet Advisory IMF- Member

Principal officer, WC Wallet Advisory IMF

Member

21

Smt. J. Meena Kumari,

CGM (Life), IRDAI – Member

CGM (Life), IRDAI

Member

22

Smt. Yegna Priya Bharat,

CGM (Health), IRDAI – Member

CGM (Health), IRDAI

Member

23

Shri. D.V.S. Ramesh,

CGM (Non-Life), IRDAI- Member

CGM (NonLife), IRDAI

Member

24

Smt. J. Anita,

GM (Intermediaries), IRDAI- Member Convener

GM (Intermediaries), IRDAI Convener

Convener

The Terms of Reference of the Committee was as follows:

  • To develop and suggest constitution and operation of a preferably, women centric distribution channel to focus on reaching untapped/rural areas – Bima Vahak – and recommend regulatory framework, therefore.
  • To develop and suggest affordable, accessible and comprehensive cover for rural population, on benefit based / parametric structure – Bima Vistaar – and recommend regulatory framework, therefore.
  • To explore and recommend on how to bring about synergies in the working and operations of Bima Vahak, Bima Vistaar and the digital platform – Bima Sugam.

Source category: IRDAI

Attachments

  • /2023/208_Bima_Vahak_Guidelines_(1).pdf
  • /2023/208_Notice_Bima_Vahak_Guidelines_(1).pdf

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