The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) has approved the setting up of insurance marketplace platform ‘Bima Sugam’. Through this, an insurance infrastructure will be created where information about all the insurance companies will be available on a single platform. Insurance of all categories including life, health and general will be listed in Bima Sugam. There people will be able to compare policy premiums and view a complete range of insurance products and buy as per their needs. Facility of renewal, claim settlement, portability will also be available. Bima Sugam will be like an e-commerce platform, where insurance companies will be able to sell their products. In this, there will be facilities ranging from purchasing of insurance to renewal, claim settlement, portability to complaint redressal. Bima Sugam aims to provide ‘end-to-end’ digital service to all policy holders. IRDAI said this enables the marketplace to serve as a one-stop solution for all insurance stakeholders including customers, insurers, middlemen and agents, thereby promoting transparency and efficiency in the insurance sector. There will be no fees for using the service of Bima Sugam. Earlier, the Chairman of IRDAI had described Bima Sugam like UPI for the insurance industry. In the draft rules issued in February, Bima Sugam, formed under the Companies Act 2013, was noted as a non-profit entity where consumers will not be charged fees for using the platform’s services. Insurance policies will become cheaper. Insurance policies will become more affordable through Bima Sugam. Currently, insurance web aggregators usually charge a fixed commission for selling insurance products. According to industry officials, as insurance companies will sell policies directly through Bima Sugam, the commission paid to middlemen is likely to come down, leading to lower premiums for policyholders.
