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IRDAI does comprehensive liberalisation of insurance regulations

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– Neha Malu, Senior Executive | corplaw@vinodkothari.com

Admittedly with the ambition to develop an economy where every citizen has appropriate life, health and property insurance cover and every enterprise is supported by appropriate insurance solutions, and also to make Indian insurance sector globally attractive, Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (‘IRDAI’) has made comprehensive changes in insurance regulations. IRDAI in its 120th meeting held on 25th November, 2022 had discussed at length the reason behind notifying such changes in IRDAI regulations and the same is expressed to fulfil its objective of achieving ‘Insurance for all by 2047’[1]. All the below discussed amendments were notified vide gazette notification dated 5th December, 2022.

The amendments notified are applicable with immediate effect and are generally speaking in the nature of liberalisation measures.  Among the changes, a noteworthy amendment is doing away with obtaining prior approval of IRDAI every time an Insurance company goes for raising money by way of issuance of ‘Other forms of Capital’. Further, the maximum limit of money that can be raised through this route has also been increased which will provide for an easy flow of money into an insurance company. Additionally, allowing a subsidiary company to be a promoter in an insurance company subject to the specified compliances is another significant amendment that has been notified.     

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Financial Service Provider under the clutch of IBC? Nature of the “debt” vs. Nature of the “debtor”

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-Megha Mittal

(resolution@vinodkothari.com)

In a first of its kind, the Hon’ble National Company Law Tribunal, Principal Bench at New Delhi (“NCLT”) vide its order dated 04.11.2019[1] in the matter of Apeejay Trust v. Aviva Life Insurance Co. India Ltd., has initiated corporate insolvency resolution process against the Corporate Debtor, despite it being a financial service provider under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 (“Code”).

In the above pretext, one may recall the order of the Hon’ble National Company Law Appellate Tribunal in the matter of Randhiraj Thakur v. Jindal Saxena Financial Services[2], wherein the Hon’ble Appellate Tribunal upheld that financial service providers shall not fall within the ambit of the Code. The order of the Hon’ble NCLAT in the said matter has been discussed in our articles “NBFCs and IBC- the Lost Connection”[3] and “State of Perplexity- Applicability of IBC on NBFCs”[4].

In this article, the author has made a humble attempt to analyse the order of the Hon’ble NCLT based on its facts, observations and the extant law.

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