IRDAI wants insurers to have internal ombudsmen for customer complaints
IRDAI is planning to make insurance companies (except reinsurers) set up an Internal Insurance Ombudsman—basically, a neutral person inside the company who handles customer complaints that haven't been sorted out.
If these rules go through, any insurer running for over three years will need at least one ombudsman to handle claims up to â‚ą50 lakh, giving policyholders a clearer way to get help when things go wrong.
Insurers can have multiple ombudsmen
Insurers can have more than one ombudsman, each covering specific areas, and they'll report directly to the company's board or its committee for handling customer issues.
Feedback on these draft guidelines is open until August 17.
Bharti AXA Life Insurance's CEO Parag Raja called the move "a big step toward independent grievance management," saying it should help build more trust and accountability in insurance.