Amendment of Insurance Web Aggregator Regulations, 2017

1 Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (Insurance Web Aggregators) Regulations, 20171 (amended up to 30.10.2019 ) In exercise of the powers conferred by section 114A of the Insurance Act, 1938 (4 of 1938), as amended from time to time, sections 14 and 26 of the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority Act, 1999 (41 of 1999) and sections 42D and 42E of Insurance Act, 1938, as amended from time to time, the Authority in consultation with the Insurance Advisory Committee, hereby makes the following regulations, namely:- Objective: The objective of the Insurance Web Aggregator Regulations is to supervise and monitor web aggregator as an insurance intermediary who maintains a website for providing interface to the insurance prospects for price comparison and information of products of different insurers and other related matters. CHAPTER I 1. Short title and commencement: (a) These Regulations may be called the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (Insurance Web Aggregators) Regulations, 2017. (b) These Regulations shall come into force on the date of their publication in the Official Gazette. (c) These regulations supersede Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (Web Aggregators) Regulations, 2013 with effect from date of Gazette notification. 2. Definitions: In these regulations, unless the context requires otherwise— (a) “Act” means the Insurance Act, 1938 (4 of 1938) as amended from time to time. (b) “Agreement” for the purpose of these regulations means an agreement entered into between an Insurance Web Aggregator and an Insurer; (c) “Authorised Verifier” for the purpose of these Regulations is a person employed by the Insurance Web Aggregator or a Tele-marketer for insurance solicitation and procurement through Telemarketing and Distance Marketing mode and who has undergone training and passed the examination as specified by the Authority; (d) “Authority” means the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) established under the provisions of Section 3 of the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority Act, 1999 (41 of 1999); (e) “Distance Marketing” for the purpose of these regulations refers to the process of solicitation or sale of insurance products where the consumer is physically not present at the point of solicitation or sale or the conclusion of the sale, and the process is accomplished through telephone or Short Messaging Service (SMS) or email or Internet or web services; (f) “Key Management Personnel” for the purposes of these regulations means Chief Executive Officer, Chief Operating Officer, Chief Marketing Officer, Chief Financial Officer, Head - Technical, Head – IT. (g) “Lead” for the purpose of these regulations means information pertaining to a person who has accessed the website of an Insurance Web Aggregator and has submitted contact information of any kind, for obtaining information on prices or features or benefits of insurance products; (h) “Lead Generation” for the purpose of these Regulations, is the process of collecting the details of the prospects to ascertain their intention to purchase insurance policy, before proceeding with solicitation of insurance products; (i) “Lead Management System” (LMS) for the purpose of these Regulations refers to the Software implemented by the Insurance Web Aggregator for recording, filtering, validating, grading, distribution, follow up and closure of leads from the enquiries received on the website of the Insurance Web Aggregator; (j) “Outsourcing” for the purpose of these Regulations means activities which can be carried out by the Insurance Web Aggregator to the extent as specified in Form U of Schedule VII; 1Vide Notification No. IRDAI/Reg/4/141/2017, published in the Gazette of India, Extraordinary, Part III, Sec.4, vide No. 161, dated 13th April,2017 (w.e.f. 25.04.2017) 2 (k) “Person” means─ a. A company formed under the Companies Act, 2013 (18 of 2013); or b. A limited liability partnership formed under the Limited Liability Partnership Act, 2008 (6 of 2009) with no partner being a non-resident entity/ person resident outside India as defined in clause (w) of section 2 of the Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 (42 of 1999) (FEMA), and not being a foreign limited liability partnership registered there under; or c. Any other person recognized by the Authority to act as an Insurance Web Aggregator; (l) "Principal Officer" means — a. a director / partner, who is exclusively responsible for the activities of the Insurance Web Aggregator in the case of a body corporate; or b. the chief executive officer appointed exclusively to carry out the functions of an Insurance Web Aggregator; (m) “Solicitation” for the purpose of these Regulations is defined as the approach of a Prospect by an insurer or an intermediary with a view to convince the Prospect to purchase an insurance policy; (n) “Telemarketer” for the purpose of these Regulations, is an entity registered with Telecom Regulatory Authority of India under Chapter III of The Telecom Commercial Communications Customer Preference Regulations, 2010 (as amended from time to time); (o) “Insurance Web Aggregator” for the purpose of these regulations is a person registered by the Authority under these Regulations; (p) “Website” is a set of related web pages served from a single web domain. A website is hosted on at least one web server, accessible via a network such as the Internet or a private local area network through an Internet address known as a Uniform resource locator. The word “website” includes a web portal and/or a mobile site for the purpose of these regulations; (q) “Designated Website” for the purpose of these regulations is a website with domain name registered, owned by and used exclusively for the functions of the Insurance Web Aggregator; (r) Words and expressions used and not defined in these Regulations but defined in the Act, as amended from time to time, the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority Act, 1999 or in any of the Regulations / Guidelines made there under shall have the meanings respectively assigned to them in those Acts/ Regulations / Guidelines. 3 CHAPTER II Registration of Insurance Web Aggregator 3. Eligibility criteria for certificate of registration of the Insurance Web Aggregator: a. For the grant of certificate of registration or renewal of certificate of registration of the Insurance Web Aggregator, the applicant shall ensure the fulfilment of the conditions including but not limited to the following: i. The applicant is a person as defined under regulation 2 (k). ii. The Memorandum of Association of the company or such other documents of applicant shall have the business of web aggregation of Insurance Products only as its main object. iii. The applicant is not engaged in any other business other than the main object (Web Aggregation of Insurance Products) of the applicant; iv. The applicant is not appointed / registered as an insurance agent, corporate agent, micro- insurance agent, TPA, surveyor and loss assessor, insurance marketing firm or any other Insurance Intermediary under the relevant Regulations framed by the Authority. v. The applicant shall not have a referral arrangement with an Insurer. vi. An applicant or its group entities ordinarily may be granted only one certificate of registration for insurance intermediation. However, an application for an insurance web aggregator registration where any group entity of the applicant is already engaged in insurance intermediation shall be considered on merits and with no conflict of interest. Note: For the purposes of these regulations, the definition of "group" shall have the same meaning as defined under Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (Investment) Regulations, 2017 as amended from time to time, any other direction issued in this regard by the Authority. vii. The applicant has a designated website to undertake insurance web aggregation for insurance solicitation. viii. The Principal Officer possesses the qualification as specified in Form C (Eligible educational qualifications for Principal Officer) of Schedule I. ix. The Principal Officer of the Insurance Web Aggregator has undergone training and passed the examination as may be specified by the Authority. x. The Principal Officer / Directors / Promoter(s) / Shareholders / Partners / Key Management Personnel fulfil the conditions in the FIT and PROPER criteria as specified in Form D (Particulars of Principal Officer/ Directors/ Partners/ Promoters/ Shareholders/ Key Management Personnel) of Schedule I. xi. The Authorised Verifier has undergone the prescribed training and passed the examination as specified by the Authority under para 8 of Form-T under Schedule VI. xii. The Insurance Web Aggregator has not violated the obligations as specified in Form V (Obligations of Insurance Web Aggregators) of Schedule VIII and the code of conduct as specified in Form W (Code of Conduct for Insurance Web Aggregator) of Schedule VIII to these regulations. xiii. The Authority has not rejected the application for grant of certificate of registration or the applicant has withdrawn the application for any reason at any time during the preceding financial year from the date of application. xiv. The foreign investor or Indian Promoter of the existing venture have exited for any reason at any time during the preceding two financial years from the date of application. Provided the Authority, considering the interests of the policyholders and overall growth and development of the insurance sector, may relax the condition of two year waiting to such time as it may so specify. xv. The Authority is of the opinion that the grant of certificate of registration shall be in the interest of policyholders. 4. Application seeking grant of certificate of registration