IRDA - Insurance Regulatory Development Authority

The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) is a national agency of the Government of India, based in Hyderabad. It was formed by an act of Indian Parliament known as IRDA Act 1999, which was amended in 2002 to incorporate some emerging requirements. Mission of IRDA as stated in the act is "to protect the interests of the policyholders, to regulate, promote and ensure orderly growth of the insurance industry and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto."

The law of India has following expectations from IRDA :

1. To protect the interest of and secure fair treatment to policyholders;

2. To bring about speedy and orderly growth of the insurance industry (including annuity and superannuation payments), for the benefit of the common man, and to provide long term funds for accelerating growth of the economy;

3. To set, promote, monitor and enforce high standards of integrity, financial soundness, fair dealing and competence of those it regulates;

4. To ensure that insurance customers receive precise, clear and correct information about products and services and make them aware of their responsibilities and duties in this regard;

5. To ensure speedy settlement of genuine claims, to prevent insurance frauds and other malpractices and put in place effective grievance redressal machinery;

6. To promote fairness, transparency and orderly conduct in financial markets dealing with insurance and build a reliable management information system to enforce high standards of financial soundness amongst market players;

7. To take action where such standards are inadequate or ineffectively enforced;

8. To bring about optimum amount of self-regulation in day to day working of the industry consistent with the requirements of prudential regulation.

IRDA Website: http://www.irdaindia.org