Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority, IRDA recently announced several restrictions for online insurance aggregators – right from controlling per lead pricing (Rs. 10/lead) to restricting advertisements/sponsored content on insurance comparison websites. The regulatory body has now announced the launch of its mobile app that enables one to compare insurance products and premium rates. The application (actually a wap site) currently lets users of mobile phones/devices with internet connectivity check and compare features of Unit Linked Insurance Policies (ULIPs) introduced on or after 1st September, 2010.
The wap site enables real time mobile based access to the IRDA repository containing details of the products by accessing http://m.irda.gov.in. Users will be able to compare the features of Unit Linked Insurance Products such as Premium, Benefits etc. Users can search products for comparison through three search options—Search by Company, Search by Policy type and Search by Keywords.
What surprises us is that why would a regulatory authority launch services that others is the insurance ecosystem have already been building? An attempt to play monopoly?
