Capital Markets
Change: The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) prohibits fund houses and intermediaries from seeking customers’ private data, such as geolocation and contact details, for transactions and know-your-customer (KYC) verification, except for specified purposes.
Impact: The order will ensure compliance with its previous guidelines to ensure customers’ privacy and boost transparency and protection against online financial fraud.
Change: Sebi allows select entities to provide e-KYC Aadhaar authentication services of the Unique Identification Authority of India to resident investors in the securities market as sub-KYC user agency to reinforce measures in the Prevention of Money-laundering Act, 2002.
Impact: The directive mandates KYC user agencies (KUAs) to facilitate the onboarding of select entities as sub-KUAs, which will ensure compliance, ease, and protect investors’ interests.
Change: Sebi rolls out a new version of its complaints redressal system, SCORES 2.0, for the web and app.
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Impact: Investors have been able to lodge complaints through SCORES 2.0 from April 1, 2024. It is more efficient than the older version due to its auto-routing, and monitoring facility, thus, reducing the redressal time.
Insurance
Change: The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (Irdai) issues guidelines for insurers to ensure all customers have a prospectus explaining the product’s benefits, features, and terms.
Impact: The guidelines call for insurers to have a board-approved procedure covering a wide range of areas to protect policyholders’ interests, including equitable access to insurance products and services, transparency in the selling process, faster grievance redressal and settlement, and proper information to enable buyers to make informed decisions.
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Change: Effective April 1, 2024, Irdai has abolished the 65-year-old age limit for individuals to buy new health insurance policies.
Impact: It will allow senior citizens above 65 years of age to buy health insurance policy.
Change: Irdai’s directive to insurance companies to issue only digital policies, or in a dematerialised form, via repositories: the CAMS Repository, Karvy, NSDL Database Management (NDML), and the Central Insurance Repository of India came into force on April 1, 2024.
Impact: Policyholders can hold insurance policies in a dematerialised account or an e-Insurance account and manage all policies, such as life, health, and general, through a single account.
Pension
Change: Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) increases the qualifying limit for auto claims processing from Rs 50,000 to Rs 1 lakh to cover medical costs on select treatments of member and dependents under the EPF Scheme.
Impact: EPF members can now request a premature withdrawal up to Rs 1 lakh for specific medical treatments, including major surgery in a hospital or conditions such as tuberculosis, leprosy, paralysis, cancer, mental illness, and heart condition.
*List is not exhaustive | Compiled by Sanjeeb Baruah