Irdai asks insurers to issue policies via Digilocker
Soon you will be able to keep your insurance policies in electronic form in a Digilocker. In order to digitize the insurance sector to make life simpler for policyholders, the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (Irdai) has asked insurers to issue digital policies via Digilocker.
As the name suggests, Digilocker is a “digital locker app” where you can securely save copies of all your documents. Digilocker is the Government of India’s cloud-based platform for issuance and verification of documents and certificates digitally. Digilocker allows access to documents like vehicle registration, PAN, Aadhaar anytime, anywhere and enables sharing of documents digitally for verification.
This will help policyholders
access their insurance information on the go and eliminate the need for physical documents. “This is indeed a constructive step to reduce paper-based documentation and eliminate the frequent problem of loss or misplacement of the policy document,”
said Priya Deshmukh Gilbile, chief operating officer, Manipalcigna Health Insurance.
While the National Insurance Repository (NIR) already provides the facility of holding all insurance policies in electronic form in a single e-insurance account (EIA), it doesn’t hold any other document. Digilocker didn’t allow storage of all insurance policies until now but will now be a one-stop solution for all documents, including insurance policies.
“NIR provides several other features with respect to your insurance policy, including premium alerts, contact updation, etc. In NIR there is also a provision to set up an authorized representative who can access the NIR in the event of the customer’s death or physical disability. You can set up a nominee for your Digilocker account,” said Yusuf Pachmariwala, executive vice-president and head operations, Tata AIA Life Insurance.
What happens if there is no nomination? Lalitha Bhatia, chief operating officer, Ageas Federal Life Insurance, said, “The insurer will consider the nomination as per the records of the company. In case the claimant is unable to access the Digilocker, they have the option of submitting an indemnity to the insurance company at the time of claim.
For eias, there is a nomination facility, basis which the nominee can make a claim to the insurance company.”
Apart from storing the policy document in electronic form, the Digilocker will also help reduce the cost, eliminate customer complaints relating to non-delivery of policy copy, improve the turnaround time of insurance services, and reduce disputes and fraud. The regulator has advised all insurers to enable their IT systems to interact with the Digilocker facility.
The insurers should also inform their retail policyholders about Digilocker and how to use it. Insurers are also advised to enable the process by which policyholders can place their policies in the Digilocker, the circular said.