Flipkart to sell insurance
Indian online retail aggregator Flipkart is set to include insurance in its offering.
The company has officially stated in its filing to the Registrar of Companies that it “intends to venture into the new line of business viz. solicitation and servicing of insurance policies by acting as a Corporate Agent. In this regard the company is required to alter its objects clause in order to align its main objects clause in line with the new line of business the company proposes to undertake.”
It is not clear whether the company has already received an approval from the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA), the governing body of the insurance industry in India.
Flipkart’s intentions to launch a financial services marketplace were first disclosed in June 2017. It was also being claimed that Flipkart has already curated a team for handling its financial services and products domain, according to a report by Inc24.
As per existing IRDA regulations, a corporate agent can sell insurance policies in sectors such as general, life and health individually or in a combination of two or three services.
Post the approval, however, Flipkart can partner with three insurers under each of insurance categories and will be liable to facilitate end-to-end transactions (except underwriting) that include discovery, payment, delivery and after-sales services, as per current rules under IRDA.
