The Insurance Regulatory Authority (IRA) has this morning released three new sets of insurance guidelines that are aimed at enhancing efficiency and transparency in the insurance sector. The guidelines released include:
- Guidelines on market conduct for insurance investigators and motor assessors: These guidelines set the minimum standards for proper conduct of insurance investigators and motor assessors while conducting their duties. The aim of these guidelines is to enhance best practices in the conduct of insurance business and to improve the image of the insurance industry.
- Guidelines on claim management for the insurance industry: These guidelines aim at enhancing efficiency, transparency and disclosure of information to policy holders during claim processing and thus increase consumer satisfaction.
- Guidelines on insurance products for insurance companies and intermediaries: these guidelines aim to ensure that insurance products sold by insurance companies and intermediaries are suitable to consumers, are fairly priced and function as intended.
Speaking with The-Star newspaper, IRA Chief Executive Sammy Makove said the guidelines have been structured in a way that details how assessors must conduct themselves with integrity and that they should complete their reports without delay to facilitate quick determination of whether claims should be paid out or not. He further added that insurance companies will be required to give full disclosure of insurance products to their potential clients before they sign them up to their products. This will help avoid conflict when deductions are made from clients’ income.
The respective guidelines will be analysed in our subsequent posts.