Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India chair calls for stronger grievance redressal and previews guidelines on insurers’ internal ombudsmen

In an address marking Bima Lokpal Day, the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India’s chair highlighted policyholder protection priorities, with a focus on improving grievance redressal and claims experience across the sector and reinforcing the role of India’s Insurance Ombudsman network as an independent dispute-resolution channel. The speech also signalled progress toward a framework encouraging insurers to appoint internal ombudsmen, with IRDAI to issue guidelines after reviewing feedback on its exposure draft. The chair cited FY2024-25 sector metrics including premium collections of over INR 11.93 lakh crore, with life insurance accounting for nearly INR 8.86 lakh crore, and noted that general and health insurers settled 3.26 crore health insurance claims paying INR 94,247 crore, while insurers honoured claims worth nearly INR 8.36 lakh crore. On complaints, 2.57 lakh policyholder grievances were registered via the Bima Bharosa platform with an industry resolution rate above 99%, while complaints to Insurance Ombudsmen increased from 52,300 in FY2022-23 to 53,230 in FY2023-24, of which 54% related to health insurance; around 33,000 hearings were held mostly online. The address also pointed to low insurance penetration and the need to extend coverage, particularly in underserved rural areas, among informal sector workers, and among women, and flagged ongoing monitoring of gaps in health insurance claim settlements where the amount settled in full is sometimes lower than expected. Next steps outlined included IRDAI’s consideration of comments on the internal-ombudsman exposure draft before issuing guidelines, alongside expectations that insurers periodically review their internal grievance redressal mechanisms and use grievance analysis and predictive indicators to reduce complaint incidence.