Irda tweaks investment norms for insurance companies

NEW DELHI: Irda today tweaked norms for insurance companies to invest their funds in different market instruments like government securities and corporate debt to channelise long term savings in infrastructure sector.

Life insurance companies can now be invested in central government securities which should not be less than 25 per cent of the total corpus, Insurance Regulatory Development Authority (Irda) said in a notification.

However, the total investment in central government securities, state government securities and other approved securities cannot be less than 50 per cent taken together.

At the same time, it has allowed life insurers to invest in housing and infrastructure bonds, with ratings of not less than AA by credit rating agencies. The total investment in the category will not be less than 15 per cent.

On pension funds, the guidelines said money generated from them will be invested in the government bonds, up to 40 per cent of the fund value, while not more than 60 per cent would be invested in other approved instruments.

As for investments in ULIP funds, the guidelines said that at least 30 per cent of the fund value would be invested in government securities and 5 per cent can be invested in housing and infrastructure bonds.

The remaining can be invested in the other approved investment categories.