Stepping up its vigilance to check the mis-selling of unit-linked insurance products (Ulips), Insurance Regulatory & Development Authority (Irda) on Saturday banned all actuarial funded products, a category of Ulip in the life insurance industry.
In a press release, Irda member R Kanan said all actuarial funded products would be phased out over a period of time and all categories of Ulips products in the domestic life insurance industry has to be standardised.
?Irda is keen to ensure that all Ulips are transparent and customers from every work of life can compare feature and charges across products and across companies,? said Irda member R Kanan. Kanan clarified there was nothing technically wrong with actuarial-funded products and customers can continue to buy them until they are phased out.
Earlier last week Irda asked Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance to withdraw its actuarial-funded product, Capital Unit Gain plan, within a fortnight period.
So far, only Bajaj Allianz Life Insurnace and Aviva Life Insurance-have actuarial-funded products.
Reacting to the development Aviva India MD Bert Paterson said, ?Actuarial-funded products are available in many parts of the world and we have been selling them to our customers for more than 5 years in India.? Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance sources said since most of the company?s 2 lakh agency force sell primarily this single product.