The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) has informed that the Insurance Laws (Amendment) Act, 2015 defines corporate agents as an insurance intermediary under section 2(1) (f) of the IRDAI Act, 1999. This necessitated the Authority to come out with new set of regulations for corporate agents and accordingly IRDAI had come out with an exposure draft on 31st March, 2015 for seeking comments of various stakeholders. Based on examination of the responses/concerns of various stakeholders, the Authority has come out with a revised second exposure draft on 29.05.2015. This exposure draft does not mandate percentage limits for banks to sell products of insurance companies.

 This was stated by Shri Jayant Sinha, Minister of State in Ministry of Finance in written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha today.

Corporate agent regulation: revised exposure draft declines to impose sales limits on banks distributing insurance products. The Authority treated corporate agents as insurance intermediaries after the statutory amendment and issued an initial exposure draft followed by a revised second exposure draft responding to stakeholder comments. The revised second exposure draft clarifies that the Authority does not mandate percentage limits on banks selling insurance products, signalling a regulatory approach that refrains from imposing numerical caps on bank distribution while framing rules for corporate agents.