IRDA unveils e-policy guidelines

The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) has come up with guidelines for issuing insurance policies electronically.

Insurance companies can now sell all kinds of insurance – life and non-life – directly from their websites, and electronic policies will be considered fully legal contracts. But insurers need to set up a qualified repository.

“The objective of creating an insurance repository is to provide policyholders a facility to keep insurance policies in an electronic form and to undertake changes, modifications and revisions in the insurance policy with speed and accuracy,” the regulator said.

IRDA also stressed that insurers must safeguard the privacy of the data maintained and introduce measures “to prevent manipulation of records and transactions”.

The full guidelines can be found here.