Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India notifies strengthened regulatory sandbox, new information governance rules and meeting regulation amendments

As part of its comprehensive review of the insurance regulatory framework, the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India has notified five new regulations/amendments, building on nine principle-based regulations issued up to March 2024. The package strengthens the Regulatory Sandbox regime, introduces a consolidated 2025 framework for maintenance and sharing of information, and amends meeting-related rules for greater operational flexibility and governance. The updated Regulatory Sandbox regulations shift further towards a principle-based approach, with operational aspects to be issued through a master circular, and expand the scope to encourage innovation, efficiency and ease of doing business, including an enabling provision for Inter-Regulatory Sandbox proposals spanning more than one financial sector. The IRDAI (Maintenance of Information by the Regulated Entities and Sharing of Information by the Authority) Regulations, 2025 consolidate three earlier regulations (2012, 2015 and 2020) and mandate electronic record-keeping with robust security and privacy measures, adoption of a data governance framework and Board-approved record maintenance policies; they also set guidelines for sharing confidential information and require data to be held only in data centres located and maintained in India. Amendments to the Meetings Regulations, Insurance Advisory Committee Regulations and Re-Insurance Advisory Committee Regulations are intended to improve the efficiency and governance of conducting meetings.