e-insurance in India April 2012 Deadline

IRDA is working to put life policies in electronic form.

April 2012 is the deadline for insuance companies to start issuing insurance policies in electronic form.

To meet this deadline, "Stock Holding Corporation, Central Depository Services Ltd, NSDL, Karvy Computers and Computer Age Management Services are working with the insures and the regulator to put in place the procedure and iron out any possible issues that may arise in the process," Sohanlal Kadel, president, Insurance Brokers Association of India said in Kolkata on Friday.

The rollout plan is as under: -

In the first phase, Life Insurance Policies will be issued electronically. This is because, most of the terms and conditions of life insurance policies are similar making it  easier for all the players to adopt dematerialisation for such policies.

The next phase will be for general insurance policies/motor policies and health covers.

The major challenge would be in introducing dematerialisation for general insurance covers.

Majority of  large General insurance covers are tailor-mode with the terms and conditions varying for each client. Hence, a large number of permutations and combinations have to be incorporated into the demat system, which might delay the introduction of e-insurance policies for large general insurance covers.

The relevant guideline by IRDA on introducing e-insurance was floated by IRDA in early 2010.

IRDA’s Guidelines in a nutshell for issuing policies electronically: - 

The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) have laid down guidelines for issuing policies electronically which should reduce transaction costs and ensure swift modifications in policies. They even issued the guidelines for repositories, which compile and store data about policyholders on behalf of the insurance companies.

The IRDA said, “The objective of creating an insurance repository is to provide policyholders a facility to keep insurance policies in an electronic form and to undertake changes, modifications and revisions in the insurance policy with speed and accuracy. All such insurance policies in electronic form shall be treated as valid insurance contracts”.

According to the guidelines insurers issuing e-insurance policies shall have to take the services of a registered repository. A certified insurance repository has to have a net worth of at least Rs 25 crore, without any foreign investment, and wherein no insurance company can hold over 10% or hold any managerial position.

“The insurance repository before commencing the operations shall put in place measures to safeguard the privacy of the data maintained and adequate systems to prevent manipulation of records and transactions,” the IRDA said..

As a safe ePayments motivator, I believe that this change in issuance of insurance policies will not only benefit insurance players but also aid in increasing value for ePayments.

As sensitive information is part of the Insurance policies, the insurance companies and the insurance repositories must develop adequate security policies to,

01) ensure that no personal information is leaked.

02) the computer network is not hacked

03) ensure that employees are aware of the distinction of ‘private information’ and ‘need-to-know’, information

06/12/2011 RTGS/NEFT Closed. Why don't you try IMPS?

By 2012 in India, Send money from ATM/Internet Banking to mobile

To promote Safe ePayments in our country, NPCI(National Payments of India), is in the process of rolling out a new product.

This new product will be an extension of IMPS(Interbank Mobile Payment Service).

IMPS was launched in June 2010, and currently 30 Banks offer this service.

However, there has no spectacular growth of transactions in the IMPS Grid. On an average 12,000 transactions are being executed on the IMPS platform.

Hence, to popularise the IMPS, NPCI had requested RBI to permit transmitting of money from ATM/NET Banking  to mobile i.e MMID

MMID is a 7 digit number, to be issued by the bank to the customer upon registration

A beneficiary should have a MMID in order to receive the money to his mobile.

The MMID is in turn linked to a Bank Account.

The main advantage of IMPS is that it is instant and works 24 X 7, including holidays.

A couple of articles on this initiative can be viewed@ http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/todays-paper/tp-money-banking/article2616030.ece

http://banking-news-update.blogspot.com/2011/11/now-send-money-from-atm-to-mobile.html

However as on 13/11/2011, this new NPCI offering is not yet updated on the NPCI website.

I am sure, there will be adequate security authentications, to ensure that there is no scope for fraudulent transactions.

Bank of Baroda - IMPS bandwagon

Bank of Baroda - IMPS bandwagon

Bank of Baroda is the latest Bank to be part of the IMPS bandwagon.

Bank of Baroda, is the 30th Bank to join the IMPS

Bank of Baroda has joined the Interbank Mobile Payment Service (IMPS) enabling their customers to transfer funds to the customers of 29 other banks who are already providing this service.

The tag line of Bank of Baroda is ‘Bank of Baroda - India's International Bank’

Bank of Baroda, has a history of 100+ years behind it, and its founder was Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwad,

One interesting titbit, which the BOB’s website, mentions is ‘The Roll of Honor’.  This Roll of Honor mentions amongst others,  Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwad, Sampatrao Gaekwad, Ralph Whitenack, Vithaldas Thakersey, Tulsidas Kilachand and NM Chokshi.

Bank of Baroda, was nationalised in the first bank nationalisation, i.e on 19 July 1969, by the government of India, along with 13 other major banks.

Bank of Baroda, over the years, acquired Banks, rescued Banks. A list of such acquisitions are

Hind Bank.,New Citizen Bank of India,  Surat Banking Corporation,  Umbergaon People’s Bank,  Tamil Nadu Central Bank, The Bank of India’s operations in Uganda,Traders Bank, which had a branch network in Delhi, Punjab Cooperative Bank in a rescue,  Benares State Bank (BSB) at the Reserve Bank of India’s request.

For IMPS transactions, NPCI provides the central switching, clearing and settlement service.

The following are  banks which have enabled  IMPS service to thier customers

(16 public sector banks, 12 private banks, one foreign bank and one co-op bank):-

Axis Bank , Bank of India, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, State Bank of India, Union Bank of India, Lakshmi Vilas Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Federal Bank, Indian Overseas Bank , IDBI Bank, YES Bank, Indian Bank, Dombivli Nagari Sahakari Bank, Corporation Bank, Oriental Bank of Commerce , Development Credit Bank, Canara Bank, Syndicate Bank, Karur Vysya Bank , Punjab National Bank , Citibank, South Indian Bank, UCO Bank, Vijaya Bank, Andhra Bank, IndusInd Bank, Catholic Syrian Bank, State Bank of Bikaner & Jaipur, Bank of Baroda are the banks which are on IMPS grid as on 11/11/2011.

Out of the above,  5 Banks i.e. Catholic Syrian Bank , IDBI Bank, Indian Overseas Bank, South Indian Bank, and Andhra Bank are in Soft Launch. Well, the internal systems, must have not yet stabilised.

26/10/2011 - RTGS/NEFT is closed

Try IMPS today!!