In an attempt to digitise insurance policies, the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) has mandated dematerialisation of new insurance policies by December this year, CNBC-TV18 reported citing sources. The regulator has also asked all insurance companies to dematerialise existing/old policies by December next year, the report added.
Dematerialisation or ‘Demat’ allows a policy holder to create a portfolio of insurance policies and store them in an electronic form with an insurance repository. It was introduced by IRDAI as a similar facility to the one available for stocks. People can have only a single ‘e-Insurance Account’ (eIA) with an insurance repository of their choice.
Insurance policies could be dematrialised with National Securities Depository Limited (NSDL), Central Depository Services (CDSL) or Karvy.
Like shares are kept in a demat form in people's trading accounts the insurance policies like health, life and motor policies will be kept in demat form starting December.
The regulator is also keen on developing Bima Sugam, a digital platform for selling, servicing, and settling claims.
Bima Sugam is a plug-and-play solution with an API interface. Irdai chief had termed it as a game changer in his address last month.
E-Insurance Account is an electronic account opened by a person with an insurance repository wherein the portfolios of insurance policies of a policyholder are held in an electronic form.
