Insurance Information Bureau to prepare central data base of intermediaries

Kolkata, June 17 (IANS) The Insurance Information Bureau of India is in a process of preparing a central data base of intermediaries working in the sector so that insurance companies have background information about them before enlisting them, an official said on Saturday.

"The industry has been asking for a central record of the third parties for life and non-life insurance businesses and we are looking at the aspect. We hope in future there could be a caution list. Right now, we are in a formative stage of preparing the central data base of the intermediaries," the Bureau's CEO Kunnel Prem said here.

"This data will help the industry while listing the third parties," he said on the sidelines of a event organised by Assocham.

The insurance sector has a lot of intermediaries, including individual and corporate agents, third party agents (TPAs) in health insurance, and investigators in claims. Unfortunately, there are complaints against many third party entities, said Prem.

According to him, there could be malpractices prevailing in the sector. The insurance companies often blacklisted their third parties if malpractices done by them are discovered by the company concerned.

"Such blacklisting has happened in the company level. There is all the possibility that this information of blacklisting is not available to other insurance companies," he said.

Prem explained third parties can move from one company and get listed to other companies. When a third party lists itself with the other companies, they (other companies) do not have the information about the background of the intermediaries.

He said in terms of health sector, there is a portal which offers common registration of clinical establishments which are in the network of insurance.

"As many as 12,800 clinical establishments are registered with the portal. The registration process is on. Later, we will do data analytics after collecting the information," he added.

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