Insurers to collect Aadhaar of agents to remove duplications

Regulator Irda has asked insurance companies to collect Aadhaar, the 12-digit unique identity, of their agents for creation of an online database in order to eliminate duplications.

The Insurance Information Bureau of India (IIB) will house the database.

The regulator said the creation of the database started with the issuance of Point of Sales person guidelines.

The purpose was de-duplication of POS enrolled by insurers and insurance intermediaries, said the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (Irda).

Therefore, the Aadhaar number was taken as the unique identifying field to remove duplication, it said.

Going forward, the regulator said, it was viewed that the same logic could be extended to insurance agents and trained and qualified persons of insurance intermediaries that would include broker, qualified persons with Aadhaar number as the unique identifying field.

Further, Irdai is of the view that such a portal should be developed and housed in IIB as it has successfully demonstrated the understanding and capabilities in developing the POS portal.

The IIB has been asked to develop the portal for uploading the Aadhaar number and other details of insurance agents on the lines of POS, the Irda said.

"The insurers are therefore advised to collect the same so as to be ready to upload the necessary information on the date to be communicated by the Authority in due course," it said.

The portal will also be available to insurance intermediaries.

The insurance intermediaries have also been asked to collect the Aadhaar number and other details of trained and qualified persons of insurance intermediaries so as to be ready to upload the necessary information.

The IIB was promoted in year 2009 by Irda to support the insurance industry with sector-level data to enable data-based and scientific decision making including pricing and framing of business strategies.