The Insurance and Regulatory Development Authority (IRDA) on Wednesday firmly rejected the need for any changes in its proposed guidelines on ULIPs (unit-linked insurance products) to be effective from September even as the industry has been voicing concern over the likely squeeze on profit margins.
Speaking to the media here at a seminar on the role of insurers in disaster management, IRDA Chairman J. Hari Narayan said: “We have considered all that [the proposed ULIP guidelines] and we do not see any need for vary from the regulations already there. We will have to balance the profits of insurance companies with what is right and proper”.
Expense pattern
Dismissing the industry's misgivings on this count, the IRDA chief said: “I do not think that the performance would be significantly impacted in this fiscal or next fiscal...The insurance companies require to get back to a much reasonable expense pattern for sustainability. We do not want to spin the industry to a high-cost sector.”
On the problems being faced by mediclaim policy holders following suspension of the cashless treatment facility by the four State-owned general insurance companies, Mr. Hari Narayan noted that the regulator would now go by the direction given by the Delhi High Court.
“Now that HC has given direction, we will follow that,” he said.