INSURANCE WEB AGGREGATION CHANNEL – Significance Of Recent Regulatory Changes

Insurance brokers have been regulated for over 16 years in India, with the regulations governing insurance brokers being introduced in 2002 by the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India. The IRDA (Insurance Brokers) Regulations 2002 (2002 Regulations) primarily stipulated the norms for solicitation and procurement of insurance, physically, by the employees of the insurance broker. As at the time that the 2002 Regulations were introduced there was very limited solicitation and procurement of insurance business online or through other means of distance marketing, the 2002 Regulations did not address these forms of marketing.

With the advent of new technology and increase in the popularity of e-commerce, it became imperative for the regulatory framework to be updated to allow for the sale and servicing of insurance online by insurance intermediaries. The first step was the introduction of the IRDAI's Guidelines on Distance Marketing of