Capital infusion vital for insurance sector: IRDA chief

Insurance Regulatory Development Authority chairman T.S. Vijayan said it was a wrong notion that IRDA welcomed the Insurance Amendment Bill with regard to hike in FDI in the sector.

Insurance Regulatory Development Authority chairman T.S. Vijayan on Friday said the sector needed capital infusion.

On the sidelines of an ASSOCHAM conference on ‘Digitization & Enhanced FDI in Insurance – The road ahead’ in Hyderabad on Friday, he said the Insurance Amendment Bill that was before Parliament now was drafted in the year 2006. Since then, it had evolved much and changes had taken place.

He said the Authority had made suggestions to a Standing Committee, especially with respect to areas like eCommerce and health insurance. About the Authority welcoming the Bill on hiking Foreign Direct Investment in the insurance sector, he said it was a wrong notion.

“That is not the thing. What we have been consistently maintaining is that the industry needs a huge amount of capital and that if foreign capital is increased, it would be easier flow of capital than all put by Indians. We are not saying FDI has to come. Capital is required and Indians may not have that much ability to put all the capital. If more comes, it will help,” he said.

Earlier, addressing captains of the industry, he said that instead of constantly talking about the need for insurance penetration to increase, they could work on coming up with a product that could appeal to the masses. “We need to develop sales professionals. Can you come up with a product that 60 per cent of people will be able to afford?” he asked.

The insurance sector was always in the forefront of leveraging technology, he recalled that apart from the defence, it was the Life Insurance Corporation of India that were the first to get the lastest IBM 1410 data processing systems way back, in India. He asked the audience whether any insurance company had developed an app (application) to help customers compare products.

“Use the power of technology to give the power to access policy details to the customer and your problems will be solved. The industry’s strength lies in it Simplify products and processes and that is the way forward,” he reiterated.

Others who spoke included Ravi Krishnamurthy, Executive Director, SBI Life Insurance and CEOs S.V. Ramanan (CAMS Repository Services) and Tapas Nandi (J.B. Boda Insurance Brokers. D.S. Rawat, Secretary-General, ASSOCHAM welcomed the gathering earlier, while R.K. Bhasin, Joint Director-ASSOCHAM proposed a vote of thanks.

P. Nandagopal, Chairman, ASSOCHAM National Council on Insurance and MD & CEO, IndiaFirst Life Insurance, said simplification of products and the complex nature of product sale and reduction of distribution, management and operating costs were what were required, apart from free flow of capital to the sector.