IRDAI exempts general insurers from issuing policy documents physically amid COVID-19

The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) has allowed general insurers to issue insurance policies in an electronic format till March 31, 2021 in view of COVID-19 pandemic.

This is applicable to certain policies including all motor, and fire insurance policies.

"In the wake of Covid-19 pandemic, the Authority has received representations from the insurance compes for an exemption to all individual/retail health insurance policies issued by general and health insurance compes (the insurers) from the requirement to issue physical policy document and hard copy of proposal form," IRDAI said in a statement.

Further, where proposal forms are collected for health insurance polices, insurers are also allowed to obtain the customer's consent without requiring wet signature on the hard copy of the proposal.

Under this, the completed proposal form shall be sent to the prospect on his / her registered e-mail ID or mobile number by means of a message with a link, as the case may be. If the proposer wishes to give consent to the proposal, the same may be permitted by providing a link for confirmation or through One Time Password (OTP) duly validated.

Moreover, insurers shall maintain verifiable, legally valid evidence for the proposer's consent received for the fully completed proposal form.

( With inputs from ANI )