Finance minister P Chidambaram inaugurated the Insurance Repository System (IRS) of Irda, which will help policy holders keep insurance policies in electronic form and undertake modifications & revisions.
Insurance repository services will offer policyholders option to access their policies online by opening an insurance account in the electronic form free of cost.
Speaking at the launch, Irda chairman TS Vijayan said repository services would significantly lower the cost of issuing policies and managing them while providing flexibility and speed of service. ?The sector needs to quickly move to digitisation from a voluntary to mandatory phase as this initiative entails multiple benefits both at the customer end and the insurer end,? he said.
For policyholders, IRS enables them to store and modify policy details, and for insurers, it reduces the cost of contain servicing costs.
Earlier this month, Irda gave five companies the status of insurance repositories and provided them with a licence valid till July 31, 2014. The insurers can enter into agreements with one or more repositories. The companies are Database Management, Central Insurance Repository, SHCIL Projects, CAMS Repository Services and Karvy Insurance Repository.
