The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India on 13th October 2022, notified the exposure draft of Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (Registration of Indian Insurance Companies) Regulations, 2022.
Under this regulation, the classes of business of insurance for which requisition for registration application may be made are:
- Life insurance business.
- General insurance business.
- Health insurance business exclusively.
- Reinsurance business.
- Any other class(es) as may be specified by the Authority.
No company or co-operative society shall be incorporated in India with a name that contains words ‘insurance’ or ‘assurance’ or ‘reinsurance’ without obtaining a No objection Certificate from the Authority. The request to issue the No-objection Certificate shall be made to Authority in the prescribed format.
The No-objection Certificate issued to the applicant shall be valid for a period of 6 months within which the applicant shall file application for issuance of registration application Form IRDAI/R1. Provided that the chairperson, by recording the reasons in writing, may extend the validity of the No-objection Certificate by another 3 months.
After examining the matters considered relevant and upon its satisfaction, the applicant may be registered as an insurer for the class of business for which the applicant is found suitable and the chairperson of the Authority may grant the applicant the Certificate of Registration in Form IRDAI/R3 subject to the following conditions:
- The applicant and its promoter(s) and investor(s) shall be “Fit & Proper” on a continuous basis;
- The promoter(s) and investor(s) shall comply with the lock in period, as may be specified, on their shareholding from the date of grant of Certificate of Registration.
- The shareholders of the applicant shall not create any encumbrance on the equity shares of the applicant during the lock in period as may be specified.
- the shareholders of the applicant shall not create any encumbrance on the equity shares of the insurer without the previous written approval of the Authority in accordance with section 6A (4) of the Insurance Act, 1938.
