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IRDAI vide its circular dated May 24, 2023 has issued a Draft of Bima Vahak Guidelines (Guidelines) Through…

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  • IRDAI vide its circular dated May 24, 2023 has issued a Draft of Bima Vahak Guidelines (Guidelines) Through…

IRDAI vide its circular dated May 24, 2023 has issued a Draft of Bima Vahak Guidelines (Guidelines)

Through the Guidelines, the IRDAI proposes to establish a dedicated distribution channel, focused on creating insurance awareness and enabling this channels take up in every Gram Panchayat and in every village, through improved accessibility of insurance products. The channel is also expected to Identify and develop people locally, who understand and appreciate local needs within every Gram Panchayat and village, especially encouraging, onboarding of women who can gain trust of locals as Bima Vahaks for distribution and servicing of insurance products.

The guideline identifies two types of entities as Bima Vahaks:

  • Corporate Bima Vahak: Any legal person registered in accordance with the respective laws of India and engaged by an Insurer under these Guidelines.
  • Individual Bima Vahak : Any Individual either appointed by an Insurer or appointed by a Corporate Bima Vahak.
  • Engagement/Appointment of Bima Vahak: Insurers may engage the services of Corporate Bima Vahaks and/or directly appoint Individual Bima Vahaks.
  • Corporate Bima Vahaks shall appoint Individual Bima Vahaks as per the terms and conditions of the agreement with the Insurer. Insurers and Corporate Bima Vahaks shall not engage:
  • Individual Bima Vahaks appointed by another Corporate Bima Vahak or by another Insurer.
  • Insurance Agents, Point of Sale Persons (POSPs) or any other insurance intermediary as Bima Vahaks.
  • Individual Bima Vahaks and Corporate Bima Vahaks, as applicable, with the intent or for the purposes of outsourcing of any activity.
  • A Bima Vahak shall:
  • sell and service the Bima Vistaar product and such other insurance products approved by the Authority.
  • work with only one life insurer, one general insurer and one health insurer and additionally where permitted by the Authority, with the Agriculture Insurance Company of India Ltd.
  • Eligibility, appointment, conduct, commission and operational aspects pertaining to engagement of Bima Vahaks by Insurers shall be governed by their Board approved policy, which must be periodically reviewed. Through Individual and Corporate Bima Vahaks, the Insurers shall progressively endeavor to achieve coverage of every Gram Panchayat.
  • Lead Insurers of each State / Union Territory shall coordinate the deployment of resources to ensure maximum coverage of Gram Panchayats per the 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%

  • Scope of activities:

The scope of activities of Bima Vahaks may include:

Collection of proposal information.

KYC documents and related submissions.

Co-ordination and support in policy and claims related servicing, as applicable.

  • Complaints Handling Officer:

Insurer shall identify a nearest local office to every Gram Panchayat and designate a Complaints Handling Officer in such office, to specifically attend to the complaints, if any, against Bima Vahak(s). and establish the necessary complaints handling process to ensure speedy resolution.

  • Miscellaneous Provisions
  • The corresponding insurers shall be responsible for KYC and AML compliance on policies sourced by Bima Vahaks.
  • Bima Vahaks to be encouraged to adopt electronic payment processes facilitated by the insurers for premium collection.
  • Premiums to be paid directly to insurersby the prospects.
  • immediate issuance of electronic acknowledgements in the local/ regional language besides in Hindi and English, to be delivered to the registered mobile number and registered email-id of the prospects or policyholders.
  • Insurer to institute systems processes, internal controls and infrastructure to enable seamless interface with all Bima Vahaks for providing necessary services of Bima Vahaks.
  • On termination of an Individual Bima Vahak, all of his/her policies shall be transferred by the concerned Insurer to another Bima Vahak of the same region and ensure seamless service to the policyholders.
  • Insurers and Corporate Bima vahaks shall issue identity cards to Individual Bima Vahaks

Comments / suggestions on the Draft Guidelines may be offered in the specified format on or before May 31, 2023 for consideration of the Authority.

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 therefor
  • To develop and suggest affordable, accessible and comprehensive cover for rural population, on benefit based / parametric structure – Bima Vistaar – and recommend regulatory framework therefor
  • 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: Unmetadated — Note: original site listing metadata was unavailable for this record; date was inferred from notice text or system record.

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