

Insurance regulator plans sales clean-up, distribution reforms, chief Ajay Seth says
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Concerned about the rising number of complaints over unfair sales practices in India’s insurance sector, the regulator is planning a major clean-up of how life, health and motor vehicle policies are sold by bringing out a discussion paper on proposed distribution reforms.The next phase of insurance reforms will focus less on headline liberalization and more on fixing structural inefficiencies in pricing, distribution and customer outcomes, Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India chairman Ajay Seth said in an interview. IRDAI is also working with the Reserve Bank of India to tighten oversight of banks selling insurance products while pushing for a lower-cost and more transparent model, he said.“We are coordinating with the RBI to curb mis-selling through the bancassurance channel.
In addition, we are also working towards a wide-ranging distribution reform. We plan to bring out a discussion paper in about six weeks,” Seth said on Tuesday.The primary concerns of the insurance regulator pertain to mis-selling of insurance, elevated cost structures and limited inclusion.
Seth said cost structures should be aligned with the discretionary or essential nature of insurance products, their complexity, distribution channels and the effort involved in selling them.The reforms planned will be significant for India’s insurance sector, which collected ₹11.93 trillion in premium income and managed assets of about ₹74.4 trillion in FY25, according to IRDAI’s annual report 2024-25.Life insurers collected ₹8.86 trillion, or 74%, of premium income (registering a growth of 6.73%) and accounted for 91% of total assets under management. Within the non-life segment, health insurance contributed
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