IRDA launched Two Online Initiatives to Safeguard the Interest of Insurance-seekers

The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) announced two online initiatives to safeguard the interest of insurance-seekers. The first of the two online initiatives is the extensive guidelines pertainining to web aggregators and the second one relates to the launch of a mobile application to compare unitlinked insurance policies (ULIPS) from various companies and their premium rates.

Guidelines to web aggregators

Web aggregators are sites like policybazaar.com, i-save.com, medimanage.com and click2insure.in that provide information on insurance products from various companies. The information so collated can help insurance-seekers compare premium rates for life, health, travel and motor insurance. Most portals just generate leads and not all offer the option to purchase a product online.

However, some do facilitate an online buying process to the extent possible, usually by directing the insurance-seekers to the companies’ website. However, aggregators often sell visitors’ personal information to several insurers, resulting in customers being bombarded with sales calls from the companies or their agents. IRDA therefore directed the aggregators not to pass visitor’s information on to companies on the site’s home page.
To ensure that aggregators do no indulge in promoting products, the insurance regulator has decreed that they cannot display ratings, rankings, endorsements or bestsellers of insurance products on their websites. Similarly, they have been barred from commenting on insurers or their products.

In addition, aggregators will from here on be required to highlight links to the product comparison charts and tables for each category of products covered by them. Items to be displayed include premiums quoted by each insurer as per age and other personal details, policy and premium term, sum assured, default underwriting requirements such as medical examination, diagnostics, etc, and key features of the product chosen. The diktat also puts the onus of safeguarding and securing the entire process on the aggregators.

Launch of the mobile application

The launch of the mobile application, is intended to help insurance-seekers compare ULIPs launched after 1 September 2010. The tool, which works on Android, iPhone, Nokia and Blackberry platforms, has been termed a mobile application and can be accessed even via a personal computer.

Users can search products for comparison through three options – By company, Policy type and Keywords. Up to three products can be selected at a time for comparison, with the criteria listed being benefits offered, premium-paying term, tenure, charges and so on.