Approval for 18 insurance companies in pipeline: IRDAI chief

Debasish Panda

Insurance regulator is in favour of issuing composite licenses, which is a common license to operate in life and general insurance market, IRDAI Chairman Debasish Panda told CNBC-TV18 in an interview. There are a lot of inquiries regarding setting up of new units, he added.

Panda said that the last approval for a new insurance company was granted in 2017, "... and after five years today, we have approved insurance company by the name Kshema General Insurance and there's another one, which is ready. We couldn't bring that proposal because their arrival of the capital will take another 15 days, it's in the pipeline... We hope in the next board (meeting) it should also get cleared and 18 more are in the pipeline."

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For the unit link business without guarantees, the solvency has been reduced from 0.8 percent to 0.6 percent, thus freeing up around Rs 1500 crore, Panda noted.

The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) has suggested the government to ease the minimum capital requirement of Rs 100 crore and permit the regulator to fix the amount depending upon business plans of the prospective company.

Doing away with the minimum capital requirement of Rs 100 crore would allow entry of small, specialised and niche players, which would help in increased insurance penetration and density in the country.