In a move to facilitate the regulatory approval works or the related jobs of insurers, who are especially operating their offices in southern and western parts of the country, Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDAI), headquartered at Hyderabad, will open its new regional office in Mumbai next month.
Initially, the 5,000-square-feet rented building at Church Gate, the posh locality of south Mumbai, will be officially inaugurated on October 1 and will be fully operational from October 5. Interestingly, on the very day of its operation the regulator will start its maiden job in the new office by conducting interviews to the shortlisted candidates for the post of clercks/assistants who are expected to visit the Hyderabad office for the same.
“The Royal Insurance building is the second regional office after Delhi with the 5,000-sqft office space, which will be located at Church Gate, the posh locality of south Mumbai near Mumbai’s popular Marine Drive. The first and foremost maiden job of the office is to conduct interviews for the post of clercks/assistants on October 5 and October 10. The candidates who have been shortlisted for the said post need not go to the Hyderabad office for the same. The office is rented out by the Kolkata-based National Insurance Company,” a top IRDAI official told The Pioneer on Tuesday.
In a bid to streamline its supervisory activities and to save the travel cost and time for the insurers, the insurance regulator has decided to set up its second regional office in the city. “IRDAI Chairman TS Vijayan will inaugurate the office on October 1 and it will be fully operational from October 5,” the official added.
“The Mumbai office will be second regional regulatory facility. Initially, the Mumbai office will have seven-member staff, including a Joint Director rank official, who will head the office. later it will expand depending upon its demand. It will also comprise a four-member inspection team and an officer-in-charge of consumer affairs department to receive grievances against insurers,” he said.
However, IRDAI Member for life insurance Nilesh Sathe said, “The job of the inspection team, which will be deputed from Hyderabad, will be to inspect the offices of insurers and brokers who are based in the megapolis. It was getting difficult for us to send the inspection teams from Hyderabad and back on a frequent basis, and hence the regulator took the decision to set up a full-fledged regional office here.”
The New Delhi office, spread across 2,000 sq-ft area, houses the survey and liaison teams operating, and is headed by Joint Director Mukesh Sharma. Noticeably, Maharashtra, along with other states, was in race to host the IRDAI headquarters in 2000.
The then Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Vilasrao Deshmukh, had even offered free of cost land in the plush BKC area to locate the head office, but the then Andhra Chief Minister Chandra Babu Naidu managed to pip others and got the headquarters in Hyderabad. Insurers said they would have to go to Hyderabad for every small regulatory approval and other related tasks and now their job will get easier once the regulator opens its office here.
“A regulator is bringing itself closer to the market. It will definitely help give a boost to business development to those insurers having their corporate offices in Mumbai,” a chief of an insurance company said, adding that many insurers will now have better access to regulator for any regulatory clarification or guidance.