The beta version of the proposed Public Insurance Registry (PIR) will be ready by January 2028, IRDAI chairman Ajay Seth said on October 15, with the Insurance Information Bureau to become a not-for-profit company that hosts it. Seth also defended the regulator’s consultation paper on distribution commissions, saying the aim is an orderly transition with no disruption, after the Insurance Brokers Association of India warned of nearly 1 million job losses and a 60-70% fall in distributor revenue.
Why it matters: The registry is the piece that would let insurance policies sit alongside bank and demat data, a gap Seth acknowledged when asked about adding policies to consolidated account statements. Until it exists, the account aggregator uses he listed for insurance, such as loans against a policy’s surrender value and premium financing, stay at the exploratory stage, since he said they need standardised data and commercially viable models.
Source: Business Standard, October 15, 2026
Image: iMahesh, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
