M&A norms soon for insurance sector: IRDA Chairman

MUMBAI: Hinting at a major overhaul in the regulations for insurance sector, IRDA on Tuesday said it will soon come out with merger and acquisition norms for the insurers and IPO guidelines are already on the way.

At the same time, Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) also favoured portability in the health insurance space, a move that will pave the way for the consumers to switch from one insurer to the other for their mediclaim policies.

Speaking to reporters at an insurance conference here, IRDA Chairman J Hari Narayan said that IPO norms for the life insurance companies are expected very shortly from the capital market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI).

At the same time, IRDA is working on M&A norms for the insurance companies and these guidelines could be announced soon, he said.

In another move aimed at benefiting the consumers, Hari Narayan said that IRDA wanted portability to be introduced in the health insurance space.

Once implemented, these norms would allow consumers to switch their insurers for their health insurance policies, just like mobile number portability that allows the telecom subscribers to switch their service provider while retaining the mobile number.

Although proposed for quite some time, the mobile number portability is yet to be implemented in the country.