Exposure draft on IRDAI (Regulatory Sandbox) (Amendment) Regulations, 2021

Background

1)    To give a fillip to insurance penetration and to facilitate innovations in the insurance sector, especially those triggered by technology the IRDAI notified the IRDAI (Regulatory Sandbox) Regulations, 2019 on 26^th July, 2019. The Regulations are valid for a period of 2 years from the date of publication in the official gazette.

2)    The Authority invited applications for the 1^st cohort of the Regulatory Sandbox starting from 15^th September, 2019 till 14^th October, 2019. A total of 173 applications were filed with the Authority. The applications covered concepts such as Wellness, Wearables, Group insurance, Usage Based Insurance, Loyalty / Rewards programmes, electronic platforms, KYC onboarding, Distribution, products, etc. The Authority granted approvals to 67 Regulatory Sandbox applications in 3 tranches. The last of the approvals granted were valid till 31^st December, 2020. So far 19 applications have been granted extension of time as they could not complete the experiment due to COVID-19 pandemic.

3)    The Authority announced the 2^nd cohort of the Regulatory Sandbox for a period of one month starting from 15^th September, 2020. The Authority received 185 applications in the 2^nd cohort.

Issue on hand

4)    It is observed that most of the proposals could not be completed within a period of 6 months due to CoVID-19. They were therefore granted extension by another 6 months to complete the experiment. It may also be noted that the validity of the Regulatory Sandbox Regulations, expires on 25^th July, 2021. Some of the proposals belonging to the 1^st cohort will not be completed by then. In addition, the proposals of 2^nd cohort will not be completed by 25^th July, 2021.

Recommendation

5)    In light of the above, it is recommended that the period of validity of the IRDAI (Regulatory Sandbox) Regulations, 2019 be extended by 2 years by amending the aforesaid Regulations.

The draft regulations are placed for comments, which may be sent in the attached format on or before 27^th January, 2021 to the undersigned at randip@irdai.gov.in and sanjay@irdai.gov.in

Randip Singh Jagpal

CGM (Int)

Draft IRDAI (Regulatory Sandbox) (Amendment) Regulations, 2021

F.No.IRDAI/Reg/  /  /2021 - In exercise of the powers conferred by clause (zd) of sub-section 2 of section 114A of Insurance Act,1938 read with section 14(2)(e) and 26 of the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority Act, 1999 (41 of 1999), the Authority, in consultation with the Insurance Advisory Committee, hereby makes the following regulations to amend Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (Regulatory Sandbox) Regulations, 2019, , namely:-

CHAPTER I

1.    Short Title and commencement:

1.1 These Regulations may be called the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (Regulatory Sandbox) (Amendment) Regulations, 2021.

1.2 These Regulations shall come into force on the date of their publication in the Official Gazette.

2.    Objective clause – The objective of these Regulations is to amend the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (Regulatory Sandbox) Regulations, 2019 to extend its validity for a period of 2 years. This is with a view to enabling the completion of experiment of the existing sandbox proposals and also to allow new sandbox proposals for experiment.

3.    In sub regulation (3) of Regulation 1, for the words “2 years”, the words “4 years” shall be substituted.

Note: The principal regulations were published in the Gazette of India, Extraordinary, Part III, Section 4, vide notification no. F.No. IRDAI/ Reg/ 11/ 162/ 2019 dated 26^th July, 2019