Comply with anti-money laundering norms: Irda to LIC, ICICI Prudential

NEW DELHI: Insurance regulator Irda today directed Life Insurance Corporation and ICICI Prudential Life Insurance to comply with Anti-Money Laundering guidelines as they were found to be in violation of various norms.

Irda has asked LIC to put in place systems and controls to comply with AML provisions. It said there were no systems in place to detect and monitor when a person made multiple cash transactions aggregating over Rs 50,000 in cash.

"The submissions that all transactions from every office of LIC are clubbed together every week and a report is generated and scrutinised... However, the Life Insurer is hereby advised to put in place specific systems and controls to ensure avoidance of possible attempts by customers to circumvent the requirement of submission of PAN/Form 60/61."

Irda also directed LIC to put in place system to analyse data pertaining to surrenders and directed the Corporation to be vigilant in future.

It also observed that LIC used declaration by Development Officers are valid proof of addresses and instructed it to avoid doing such activities.

In the matter of ICICI Prudential, Irda asked it to closely monitor its branches and further strengthen internal controls as there were tampered/forged documents of ID proofs, address proof and income proofs at some of its branches.

It also asked the company to sensitise its employees, agents and corporate agents to report cases about customers insisting on anonymity, reluctance to provide identifying information or providing seemingly fictitious information.

The regulator also asked ICICI Prudential to put in place training system for their corporate agents.

"It is stated that absence of training on an ongoing basis as envisaged in the AML Guidelines... Therefore the Life Insurer is hereby advised to put in place the systems to comply with the training requirements," Irda said.