IPO norms for non-life players in week: Harinarayan

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The insurance regulator J. Harinarayan on Monday said the authority will issue the draft public float guidelines for general insurance companies within a week.

"All things have been finalised and we may come out with the IPO (initial public offering) norms for general insurers in another week," the IRDA chairman told an industry meet organised by CII here.

Earlier, the market regulator Sebi had approved the draft IPO draft guidelines for non-life insurance companies.

However, it can be noted that nearly a year after the final listing guidelines were issued for life players, none of the 10-odd players who are eligible for public float have got listed so far.

On the draft guidelines for life product designs, Harinarayan said, "we will come out with the draft on life products design by the end of the month."

The Irda also released the exposure draft on investment norms relating to swaps, hedging and equity exposure for the industry players.

However, he did not give a timeline saying the regulator is working on exposure draft for senior agents, but cannot give a time-line for it.

Going forward, protection and annuity provisions will be the two important areas of focus for the life insurance companies.

Talking about lesser availability of annuity plans, he said at present LIC is the major player in the segment amounting to high concentration risk.

"The regulator cannot think of only of one annuity player in the market, which increases the concentration of risks. So insurance companies have to think about it," he said.

Harinarayan further said it will also come up with exposure draft on risk weight solvency in the near future.

"We are taking some baby-steps in risk weight solvency, which will be in line with the RBI guidelines," he said.

When asked about norms on e-insurance, he said, the repository has already been selected and it will be in place shortly.

Talking on the whistleblower policy, he said, the regulator is thinking about coming up a policy on this front in line with RBI.

Pulling up insurance companies for rushing in to launch new products, he said, they should instead concentrate on existing products that are in demand.