The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (Irdai) has discussed the roadmap with the chiefs of the insurance companies for launching Bima Sugam, a common platform to meet all insurance-related needs, according to a report by CNBC TV-18.
The insurance regulator has held a meeting with the insurance companies to discuss the road ahead for the platform, which is envisioned as a common platform for selling, servicing, and making claims for insurance policies.
In 2022, Irdai had approved the idea of creating the Bima Sugam platform and held discussions on the same. At the time, Irdai chairman Debashish Panda had said that Bima Sugam would be a game changer for the insurance industry.
Irdai is now set to release requests for proposals (RFPs) soon to appoint service providers for the Bima Sugam platform. These service providers will be responsible for creating and running a platform to provide all the services in one place.
The platform is reportedly expected to raise Rs 100 crore from stakeholders, the insurance companies, service providers, aggregators, and the agent body.
The equity structure in the platform is set to be a 45:45:10 ratio, where life insurance companies will own a 45 per cent stake on an equitable basis, with general insurance, and standalone health insurance companies owing the other 45 per cent stake. Insurance aggregators, agent body and service providers will own the rest 10 per cent of the total equity.
To run the platform and meet operating expenses, discussions were also held around charges. The Bima Sugam platform may charge a fee to the insurance companies for transactions including the sale of policies, renewal, and claims. There could also be a fee for the enquiries, too.
The implementation of the platform would be done in two phases. In the first phase, the Bima Sugam platform may be used for the insurance and intermediary companies as a data bank, and in the second phase, the products are planned to be listed on the platform.
In the insurance industry, there are several players and products. Considering this, the platform initiated by Irdai would bring all the companies and their insurance products into a single window which will help the customers immensely to find out a product and get all services in one place. It will increase the transparency and accountability overall in the insurance sector.
