Kathmandu. Two years and eight months have passed since the implementation of the Insurance Act, 2079 BS. Insurance Information Centre is one of the few institutional structures provided in the Act.
Section 155 of the Insurance Act contains provisions related to insurance information centers. The Insurance Regulations, 2081 have also included some brief details about the functioning of the Insurance Information Center.
According to the insurance regulations, the insurance information center will be established for the collection, storage and distribution of information related to insurance. Apart from this, the information center will blacklist the insured who commits insurance fraud, fraud, insurance crimes including fraud, unnatural or suspicious insurance activities as per the requirement.
The work of collecting information referred to in Sub-section (4) of Section 143 of the Insurance Act and keeping records has also been included in the scope of the Insurance Information Center. According to this section, if the authority has written to the insured or any other person who does not cooperate in the investigation or investigation of insurance related fraud, fraud or insurance fraud, then the authority can prohibit the insurance person from insuring any business involving such person for five years by blacklisting it from the competent authority as per the prevailing law.
The establishment of the center will make it easier to prepare periodic reports related to insurance and collect other necessary data related to insurance. In addition, the Information Center will be able to further define and clarify the work and work area through its management letter and regulations.
It has also been included in the regulation that the insurer must provide the necessary details, information and information to the Insurance Information Center to carry out the work according to the objectives of the Insurance Information Center.
The insurer hopes that the establishment of the Insurance Information Center will make it easier to identify the tendency of insurers who have taken undue advantage from insurance claims of the same nature at different times from different companies.
Similarly, in life insurance, it will be easier to share information about the insured insured by providing fake details or falsifying the details in different life insurers.
The Nepal Insurance Authority (NICA) has repeatedly instructed the insurer to collect detailed identification details of the new insured and the old insured on a periodic basis at the time of accepting the proposal of the insurance policy, but it has not been implemented in practice. Insurers are collecting incomplete and insufficient information while collecting personal details revealing the identity of the insured. The insurer does not have a mechanism to identify whether the documents and details including citizenship certificate, bank account number provided by the insured are true or not. In the absence of a reliable mechanism to verify the details and evidence received, insurers have not been able to ascertain whether the customer’s details are real or fake.
In neighboring India, the Insurance Information Bureau exists for the purpose of insurance companies. Apart from this, the Central KYC Center (Central KYC Center) is also in operation to facilitate customer identification of banks and insurance companies. Such a center collects all the details related to the insured in an integrated manner. If the insured has to provide personal details to the insurer for any insurance proposal form, then there is no need to fill one detail in the proposal form, it is enough if the insured provides the KYC number. On the basis of this KYC number, insurers get the personal details of the insured from the integrated KYC system.
The insurance information center proposed by the Insurance Act can also act as an integrated KYC center.
Old life insurers have been unable to identify the insured or beneficiary of the old insurance policy. Due to lack of regular contact with the insured for more than a decade and the inability to identify the insured or beneficiary, a large amount of claim has been deposited in the insurer’s account in unusable cases. As a result, the insured or beneficiary has to be deprived of the benefits of insurance.
The Insurance Information Center can help in the identification of the insured or beneficiary by collecting and disseminating the information of the insured in an integrated manner. For those who have been insured years ago by a family member but do not even know which company they have insured, the Insurance Information Center can be a means of providing information.
