Staff Report
ISLAMABAD: The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP), to strengthen the regulatory regime for distribution of insurance through corporate insurance agents, including bancassurance has notified the Corporate Insurance Agents Regulations (CIAR), 2020. The regulations also include code of conduct for corporate insurance agents of insurance companies to clearly define their role and responsibilities while dealing with the policyholders, said a press release issued by SECP.
The regulations aimed at curtailing the issue of mis-selling and ensure provision of maximum and clear information regarding company’s term and conditions of an insurance policy. The regulations also include measures to promote technology driven modes of corporate insurance agents. To protect policy holders’ rights, the Regulations require corporate insurance agents including banks to ensure provision of clear and detailed disclosures to potential policyholders/customers. The after-sales callback confirmation process has been improved and a basic script of callback confirmation has been included in regulations. The regulations also introduced an automatic commission claw-back provision. Product structure and bank’s remuneration have been further aligned to policyholder’s interest through rationalization of commission rates and introduction of minimum premium allocation rates. Other areas addressed in the regulations included, promotion of digitalization, encouraging suitable product mix, provision of bilingual policy documents to policyholders, increased communication with the policyholders through SMS and emails, enhanced disclosure requirements including showing audio-visual clip of insurance product to policyholders, enhanced training requirements etc.
