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 CONTENT
MOVERVIEW
MMISSION
MOBJECTIVE
MComposition of Authority under IRDA
Act, 1999
MPowers and Functions of IRDA
MImpact Of IRDA On Indian Insurance
Sector
MExpectations
MGuidelines on Issue / Renewal of
Licence to Corporate Agents
M Procedure of issue or Renewal of
license by IRDA
M TRAINING OF INSURANCE
AGENTS
M TRAINING OF INSURANCE
AGENTS
M SEBI VS IRDA
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 A national agency of the Government of India,
based in Hyderabad.
 formed by an act of Indian Parliament known as
IRDA Act 1999, which was amended in 2002 to
incorporate some emerging requirements.
 Established by Parliament to protect the interests
of the policyholders, to regulate, promote, and
ensure orderly growth of the 
  industry.
 It is an apex body which governs the insurance
business transacted by insurance companies in
India.
MISSION
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OBJECTIVE
 Take care of the policyholders interest.
 Open the insurance sector for private sector.
 Ensure continued financial soundness and
solvency.
 Regulate insurance and reinsurance companies.
 Eliminate dishonesty and unhealthy competition.
 Supervise the activities of intermediaries.
 Amend the insurance act 1938 ,the Life Insurance
Corporation Act1956, and the General Business
Act1972.
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 The Authority is a ten member team
consisting of

(a) a Chairman;
(b) five whole-time members;
(c) four part-time members,

(all appointed by the Government of India)

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 It issues the applicants in insurance arena, a certificate of
registration as well as renewal, modification, withdrawal,
suspension or cancellation of such registrations.
 It protects the interests of the policy holders in any
insurance company in the matters related to the assignment
of policy, nomination by policy holders, insurable interest, and
resolution of insurance claim, submission value of policy and
other terms and proposals in the contract.
 It also specifies obligatory credentials, code of conduct and
practical instructions for mediator as well as the insurance
company. Apart from this, it also defines the code of conduct
for the surveyors and loss assessors involved with the
insurance business.
 One of the major functions of IRDA includes endorsing
competence in the insurance business. Apart from this,
upholding and regulating professional organizations in
insurance and re-insurance business is also a major duty of
IRDA.
 IRDA is also entitled to for asking information, undertaking
inspection and investigating the audit of the insurers,
mediators, insurance intermediaries and other organizations
related to the insurance sector.
 It is also concerned with the regulation of the rates, profits,
provisions and conditions that may be offered by insurers in
respect of general insurance business if it is not controlled or
regulated by the Tariff Advisory Committee.
 It is also entitled to supervise the functioning of the Tariff
Advisory Committee.
 IRDA specifies the terms and pattern in which
books of accounts are to be maintained and
statement of accounts shall be provided by insurers
and other insurance mediators.
 It also regulates investment of funds by insurance
companies as well as the maintenance of margin of
solvency.
 It is also empowered to be involved in the
arbitration of disagreements between insurers and
intermediaries or insurance intermediaries.
 It is meant to specify the proportion of premium
income of the insurer to finance policies.
 IRDA also specifies the share of life insurance
business and general insurance business to be
accepted by the insurer in the rural or social
sector.
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 Brought revolutionary changes in the
Insurance sector.
 In last 10 years of its establishment the
insurance sector has seen tremendous
growth. When IRDA came into being; only
players in the insurance industry were Life
Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) and
General Insurance Corporation of India
(GIC), however in last decade 23 new
players have emerged in the filed of
insurance. The IRDA also successfully deals
with any discrepancy in the insurance sector.
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The law of India has following expectations from IRDA:
 To protect the interest of and secure fair treatment to
policyholders.
 To bring about speedy and orderly growth of the insurance
industry (including annuity and superannuation payments), for
the benefit of the common man, and to provide long term
funds for accelerating growth of the economy.
 To set, promote, monitor and enforce high standards of
integrity, financial soundness, fair dealing and competence of
those it regulates.
 To ensure that insurance customers receive precise, clear
and correct information about products and services and
make them aware of their responsibilities and duties in this
regard.
 To ensure speedy settlement of genuine claims, to
prevent insurance frauds and other malpractices and
put in place effective grievance redressal machinery.
 To promote fairness, transparency and orderly
conduct in financial markets dealing with insurance
and build a reliable management information system to
enforce high standards of financial soundness amongst
market players.
 To take action where such standards are inadequate
or ineffectively enforced.
 To bring about optimum amount of self-regulation in
day to day working of the industry consistent with the
requirements of prudential regulation.
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The following procedure shall be adopted by all the
Insurers for seeking prior approval from the Authority,
before issuing Fresh License / Renewal of License to the
Corporate Agents:
 All the Insurers shall send to the Authority, the
Checklist-cum-Certification as per Annexure-1, in
respect of all Fresh Licenses and the Renewals to obtain
prior approval of the Authority.
 The Checklist shall be duly filled in and signed by the
Corporate Compliance Officer, who shall be designated
as the Corporate Designated Person of the Insurer.
 The scanned copy (.pdf document) of Checklist along
with Certification shall be mailed to the Authority at
the email address corp.agent@irda.gov.in for the
purpose of processing at the office of the Authority.
 The relevant documents supporting the facts of the Checklist
shall be maintained at the Corporate / Head Office of the
Insurer and shall be made available to the Officers of the
Authority for Inspection, as and when required by the
Authority.
 On receipt and scrutiny of the Checklist-cum-Certification
from the Insurer, the Authority shall intimate its decision of
Approval or otherwise with in 7 (seven) working days from
the date of receipt.
 Fresh / Renewal License shall be issued by the Corporate
Designated Person of the Insurer from the IRDA portal (as
per the existing procedure) only after obtaining prior
approval of the Authority.
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 IRDA mandates +$$-#,,!

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,&,(,&" to operate as an insurance agent.
Insurance companies recruit self employed
individuals as agents and often sponsor the
training charges
 A lot of training is also imparted by the
insurance companies prior to and post
issuance of the license. These trainings are
on soft skills, product knowledge and
competition analysis.
 The training duration should be minimum 18
days for 100 hours· training and 27 days for
150 hours training with maximum 6 hrs per
day. Similarly, the training duration should be
minimum 9 days for 50 hours training and 5
days for 25 hours training at the time of
renewal with maximum 6 hours per day. The
maximum time permissible for completion of
training will be 30 days for 100 hours, 45 days
for 150 hours, 15 days for 50 hours and 8
days for 25 hours.
GRIEVANCES HANDLING

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 provided for a separate channel for lodging
complaints against deficiency of services
rendered by Insurance Companies.
 Approach the Nodal Officer of the
Insurance Company concerned.
 In case anyone is not satisfied with the
Insurance Company·s response they may also
file a complaint with the Insurance
Ombudsman in their State.
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 first approach the Grievance/Customer
Complaints Cell of the concerned insurer.
 If they do not receive a response from
insurer(s) within a reasonable period of time
or are dissatisfied with the response of the
company, they may approach the Grievance
Cell of the IRDA.
 An insurer shall send a written acknowledgement to a
complainant within three working days of the receipt of the
grievance...where the grievance is not resolved within three
working days, an insurer shall resolve the grievance within
two weeks of its receipt and send a final letter of resolution.
 Any failure on the part of insurers to follow the... procedures
and time-frames would attract penalties by the Insurance
Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA).
 The acknowledgement sent to the customer should contain
the name and designation of the officer, who dealt with the
grievance and should also contain the details of the insurer's
grievance redressal procedure and the time taken for
resolution of disputes.
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 Every insurer shall have a system and a procedure for
receiving, registering and disposing of grievances in
each of its offices.While insurers shall ensure that the
following minimum time-frames are adopted:
 An insurer shall send a written acknowledgement to
a complainant within 3 working days of the receipt of
the grievance.
 The acknowledgement shall contain the name and
designation of the officer who will deal with the
grievance.
 It shall also contain the details of the insurer·s
grievance redressal procedure and the time taken for
resolution of disputes.
 Where the insurer resolves the complaint within 3
days, it may communicate the resolution along with
the acknowledgement.
 Where the grievance is not resolved within 3
working days, an insurer shall resolve the grievance
within 2 weeks of its receipt and send a final letter of
resolution.
 Where, within 2 weeks, the company sends the
complainant a written response which offers redress
or rejects the complaint and gives reasons for doing
so.
 the insurer shall inform the complainant about how
he/she may pursue the complaint, if dissatisfied.
 the insurer shall inform that it will regard the
complaint as closed if it does not receive a reply
within 8 weeks from the date of receipt of
response by the insured/policyholder.
 Any failure on the part of insurers to follow the
above-mentioned procedures and time-frames
would attract penalties by the Insurance
Regulatory and Development Authority. It may be
noted that it is necessary for each and every
office of the insurer to adopt a system of
grievance registration and disposal.
5( ' 6
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 The ULIPs controversy that started with
the stock market regulator SEBI banning
14 Insurance companies from issuing fresh
ULIPs has drawn from fresh blood. Within
24 hours of this ban, Insurance Regulatory
Development Authority or the IRDA has
responses to the SEBI notice by stating
that insurers can continue issuing policies
as usual.
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 ULIPs are similar to mutual funds (investment in stock
market) and some part of insurance added to it. As ULIP are
doing investment in share market, SEBI should have a control
over it.
 As ULIP has more to do with Stock market investment and
less with insurance part.
 This regulatory issue is turning into a battle of supremacy ²
an outcome wherein the consumer interest may be sidelined
for the moment. IRDA seems particularly irritated as it may
see this ban as an encroachment of its territory of rights ²
perhaps ignoring the public good.
 The government may be compelled to step in to resolve the
issue as some insurers are planning to approach the court.
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 SEBI has lifted the ban on selling of Unit

Linked Insurance Polices (ULIPs) by 14
insurance companies. This move came in
after SEBI guys met IRDA and finance
ministry people. But Finance Minister
Pranab Mukherjee has said that final
decision will be by court.
 And the court decision was in favour of
IRDA.