Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) is examining suspected illegal practices by some private sector insurers and their partner banks in bancassurance business. Bancassurance is an arrangement between a bank and an insurance company allowing the insurance company to sell its products to the bank's client base.
Some large insurance firms and their parent firms are preserving current account balances with various banks which also act as corporate agents. The interest forgone on such large balance is counted towards the compensation banks are to receive for the sale of insurance products. Due to this practice, the interest of policy holders is at stake as these funds earn zero returns. Such practices are in gross violation of the IRDAI's norms for bancassurance industry and standard corporate governance norms.
The Insurance regulator has highlighted some unlawful practices in the bancassurance channels to the government and has got a go-ahead to act against errant entities. According to IRDAI’s corporate agency regulations, if a bank enters into an agreement with an insurance company for selling insurance products, then that bank is not eligible for any payout other than commission. IRDAI has also noticed that insurance companies and their promoter organisations have engineered rates to pay excess commission or remuneration to their bancassurance partners through ‘seemingly’ legitimate banking transactions.
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