ROLE OF IRDAI IN PROMOTING E-COMMERCE IN INSURANCE SECTOR WHILE ENSURING POLICYHOLDER PROTECTION.

Authors

Goda Mallikarjun Dr, Dr Goda Mallikarjun is a Professor at Commonwealth Institute of Justice Education and Research, Lloyd Law College, Greater Noida. He is the Director of Insurance Arbitration Certificate Course (Online) ASEAN Institute of Insurance and Risk Management. He serves as the Secretary General of ASEAN Center for Dispute Resolution (An Initiative of ASEAN Arbitration Foundation)

Abstract

Insurance is a financial service for protecting life, health, and property from risk. Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India was brought in to protect policyholders’ interests and regulate, promote and develop the insurance market in an orderly manner after liberalization and allowing private particiaption and foreign equity in the insurance sector. The increasing useof the internet and mobile for providing banking and financial sevices generated demand for similar channels of electronic access and commerce in insurance also. IRDAI issued the Guidelines for e-Commerce mandating that the same should be carried out only through the Insurance Self-Network Platform to be offered by insurers, intermediaries, and such other entities as permitted by IRDAI.The guidelines replicated provisions in IRDAI (Protection of Policyholders’ Interests) Regulation 2017 relating to solicitation, proposal, sale,and issue of policies in an electronic environment along with stipulations for ensuring the safety and security of information systems and data. The grievance redressal systems mandated under the abovementioned Regulations enable expeditious resolution of grievances by insurers and the Insurance Ombudsmen operating under the Insurance Ombudsman Rules, 2017 provide an inexpensive, expeditious and efficient system for resolving grievances where the insurers do not redress grievances or even respond to them. IRDAI plays a key role in implementing the provisions, facilitating redressal of grievances, analysing them to assess the market conduct, and fine-tune regulations or initiate regulatory action for non-compliance.Though IRDAI has put in place the regulatory and consumer protection framework for facilitating e-commerce in insurance, the extent of on-line sale is less than 2% of new business. Therefore, there is a need to promote e-commerce in insurance and thereby facilitate not only insurance inclusion but also dematerialized holding of insurance in e-Insurance accounts.

Recommended Citation

Mallikarjun, Goda Dr (2022) "ROLE OF IRDAI IN PROMOTING E-COMMERCE IN INSURANCE SECTOR WHILE ENSURING POLICYHOLDER PROTECTION.," International Journal on Consumer Law and Practice: Vol. 10, Article 8.
Available at: https://repository.nls.ac.in/ijclp/vol10/iss1/8