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Life insurers can obtain customer consent without a wet signature on physical proposal forms for business solicited by agents and intermediaries. This facilitation applies to pure risk products on an experimental basis. Life insurers must send the completed proposal form to the registered email ID or mobile number of the prospect. The prospect provides consent by clicking a confirmation link or by validating an OTP. Insurers must not accept payment for proposal deposits until they receive the consent of the proposer. Life insurers must maintain verifiable evidence of consent, ensure the suitability of the product, and conduct pre-issuance verification calls for all such proposals. Life insurers must also maintain separate records of grievances for this sales method and submit a monthly statement to the Authority.
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भारतीय बीमा विनियामक और विकास प्राधिकरण INSURANCE REGULATORY AND DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY OF INDIA
Ref: IRDAI/Life/Cir/Misc/208/08/2020
05th August, 2020
To All Life Insurers
Re: Dispensing with physical signature on proposal forms.
The Authority is in receipt of feedback from various life insurers that the situation arising in the wake of COVID-19 outbreak has impacted the traditional manner of canvassing life insurance policies by agents and intermediaries. In particular, the filling-in of the physical proposal forms, obtaining wet signatures on them and subsequent movement of such physical papers, etc., are severely affected. In this backdrop, the life insurers have represented to the Authority to allow the option of authenticating the proposals for life insurance through electronic means, in place of physical signature, for the sales made by insurance agents and intermediaries, in addition to the methods presently allowed.
After examining the suggestions received from life insurers, the Competent Authority issues the following instructions under Regulation 18, read together with Regulation 8 (1), of IRDAI (Protection of Policyholders' Interests) Regulations, 2017:
Life Insurers are allowed to obtain the customer's consent without requiring wet signature on the hard copy of the proposal form, for the business solicited by insurance agents / intermediaries subject to following:
The Insurers shall be responsible for:
The above facilitation is allowed on an experimental basis with immediate effect till 31st December, 2020, and is limited to pure risk products, i.e., products that do not involve any savings element. Grievances pertaining to sales logged in through the above method shall be separately maintained by the Life Insurers and a monthly statement shall be submitted to the Authority in Annexure I. Further, the Authority reserves the right to revoke the above facilitation in respect of any individual Insurer or for all Insurers any time.
[Image omitted. See the official document.]
V Jayanth Kumar Chief General Manager (Life Insurance)
Encl: Annexure I.
Annexure 1
Name of Life Insurer: __________________________________________________
A) Statement of Grievances in respect of policies sold with OTP Authentication in lieu of wet signature on physical Proposal form, BI, Suitability Assessment for the month of _____________;
| Number of Individual Policies sold (1) | Number of Policies sold with OTP method (2) | Number of grievances received out of (2) |
|---|---|---|
B) Grievance List for the month with
Policy number & Name of Proposer
Agent/Intermediary details
Nature of grievance
How dealt with (grievance resolution, action against agent/intermediary, system correction)
