Bima Sugam Becomes a Game Changer for the Insurance Industry: IRDAI Chairman

By making it easy for customers across the country to purchase insurance, this technology-driven portal will help increase insurance penetration in the country.

The Basish Panda, chairman of the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI), said in an interview with PTI that Bima Sugam should be a UPI moment for the insurance industry.

The widespread adoption of the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) for even small payments has revolutionized digital payments in the nation. Numerous countries are trying to duplicate the rapid success of UPI, which has attracted international attention. Payment via UPI, which was introduced in 2016, reached the 11 lakh crore milestone in September this year.

“Bima Sugam will be a one-stop shop for buying and selling insurance, for policy settlement and also for claims settlement. Insurance companies will be able to board the platform. It will be plug-and-play with the API (Application Programming Interface ) interface,” Panda said.

He further said that all insurance intermediaries, including individual agents, web aggregators will have access to this portal.

And as for the policyholder, he said, he or she will be able to purchase the product through assisted mode, or directly. “So maybe a lot of people prefer the assisted mode and can get the help of one of the middlemen,” he added.

The policyholder and potential customers can choose from a variety of products, companies and payment options on this platform.

“So it’s like a shopping mall. So you go shopping there. And as for the KYC, the moment you enter the portal, type your Aadhaar number, the data will be filled automatically. The KYC is done through your Aadhaar number that will be masked for security reasons,” he said.

Ensuring the policy would be done through a few simple steps and in a few minutes through the portal, he said.

To ensure an easy liability service, he said, “We are trying to mandate that all policies must go to insurance depots that will store the details permanently. It will help settle claims in a paperless way based on the policy number.”

The portal, he added, “will promote ease of living and increase the reach of insurance … this is going to be a game changer. It will be a huge facilitator and I think with this platform you don’t have to go anywhere physically.”

With inputs from PTI