Insurance take wrath on corporate agents

The Insurance and Regulatory Development Authority (IRDA) has cancelled the licences of 4,261 corporate agents, including Housing Development Finance Corporation, HDFC Bank, Development Credit Bank, Standard Chartered Bank, after them unsuccessful to renovate their licences by March 31 this year.

The regulator has asked the people not to do any business with these entities.

IRDA chairman J. Hari Narayan said the licences would not be changed with presentation effect. There are 7,000 agents in the country selling life and non-life insurance policies.

However, Hari Narayan said the policies bought from these entities would stay valid. The insurer concerned will allocate another agent so that the policies can be converted.

Among the 4,261 agents, a famous entity is HDFC, which was selling policies of its general insurance supplementary HDFC Ergo.

The licence of HDFC Bank, which sold policies of HDFC Ergo and Bajaj Allianz General Insurance Company, has also been withdrawn.

The licences of Corporation Bank and Standard Chartered Bank for selling products of Life Insurance Corporation and Bajaj Allianz Life, respectively, have also been revoked.

Others in the list comprise Bajaj Capital Financial Services (Bajaj Allianz General Insurance and ICICI Prudential Life Insurance), Way2Wealth Consulting (Bajaj Allianz General Insurance and HDFC Standard Life), India Bulls Insurance Advisors (Birla Sun Life), India Infoline and Aditya Birla Money (ICICI Prudential Life Insurance policies).

However, Way2Wealth is planning to apply for an insurance brokering licence.

?In a corporate agency representation, one cannot sell products of more than one life and one non-life insurer. But with a brokering licence, products of different insurers can be sold,? an official said.