IRDA chief: New players eye insurance sector

The Insurance Regulatory and Development and Authority (IRDA) has said new players have evinced interest in entering the insurance sector after the government increased the sectoral FDI cap to 49 per cent.

In December last year, the government through an ordinance hiked the foreign investment cap in the insurance sector to 49 per cent, which has been pending since 2008. Earlier, this foreign investment limit was capped at 26 per cent.

IRDA chairman T S Vijayan said post the executive order new players have shown interest in entering the fray.

Some new players interested in the sector have started preliminary discussions with the IRDA, he told reporters on the sidelines of a global conference of actuaries here.

“I hope that once the preliminary discussions are over, a number of new players will apply for licences.”

He said IRDA has started work on drafting a new set of regulations as per provisions of the ordinance.

“We have to cover 14 regulations. We will either make fresh regulations or amend the existing ones. Some of them are very critical and have to be done immediately.”

The regulator will also come out with a regulation on expense management, Vijayan said.