IRDA May Set a Time-Frame for Insurers to Go Public

India’s insurance regulator IRDA may set a time-frame for insurers to go for public listing. This was also the stand taken by Reserve Bank of India, calling for promoters of new private banks to cut their share within ten years of getting a licence.

According to law, there is no specific time limit, but the insurance regulator could do so. IRDA has finalized IPO norms for helping life companies go public. The regulator has mapped out different disclosure guidelines for insurance companies in advance of listing since there were great numbers of policyholders who have stake in the company.

Chairman of IRDA, J. Hari Narayan said, “The changes were required to restore customer confidence. Restrictions on pension ULIPS were placed because life insurers were selling mutual fund schemes under the garb of ULIP pensions. A lot of ULIP products which were sold as pensions were not really pension products, they were more like mutual funds."