Escolar Documentos
Profissional Documentos
Cultura Documentos
2018”
taxguru.in/corporate-law/exposure-draft-insurance-regulatory-development-authority-india-reinsurance-regulations-
2018.html
editor
Date: 05-01-2018
The Authority had constituted an Expert Committee on Reinsurance on 05th May, 2017.
The Committee has submitted the report and the same is available in IRDAI website. In
view of the Committee’s recommendations, the Authority hereby proposes the draft
regulations i.e. “Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (Reinsurance)
Regulations, 2018 (Annexure I) inviting comments and suggestions.
Stakeholders are requested to offer their comments / suggestions on the draft regulations
by 20th January, 2018 in the format (Annexure II) attached. Comments / suggestions may
be sent to the Reinsurance Department at reinsurance [at] irda [dot] gov [dot] in and to
Shri Suresh Mathur, Executive Director at suresh [at] irda [dot] gov [dot] in.
Suresh Mathur
Executive Director
Annexure-I
F. No. IRDAI/Reg/XX/XX/2018. –
In exercise of the powers conferred by section 114A of the Insurance Act, 1938, read with
sections 14 and 26 of the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority Act, 1999, the
Authority, in consultation with the Insurance Advisory Committee, hereby makes the
following regulations–
These regulations shall be called the “Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of
India (Reinsurance) Regulations, 2018”.
These regulations shall come into effect from 1st April, 2018.
2. Definitions
1/10
In these regulations, unless the context otherwise requires:
2) ‘Alternative Risk Transfer’ hereinafter called by acronym ‘ART’, shall mean structured
reinsurance solutions that are tailored to specific needs and profile of an insurer or re-
insurer;
i. The Board of Directors of (a) the Indian Insurers writing direct insurance business and (b)
Indian Reinsurers;
ii. The Executive Committee of FRBs, duly authorized by the Board of Directors of the
respective parent entity;
5) ‘Cedant’ means an insurer who underwrites and issues an original, primary insurance
policy to an insured and contractually transfers (cedes) a portion of the risk to a reinsurer;
6) ‘Cession’ means the part of risk passed to a reinsurer by the cedant, which issued an
insurance policy to the original insured;
8) ‘Cross Border Reinsurer’ herein after called by acronym ‘CBR’ means a foreign insurer or
reinsurer (duly licenced or authorised by their home country regulator to transact
reinsurance business) and who is not granted with a certificate of registration by the
Authority, but transacts reinsurance business with Indian insurers;
10) ‘Facultative Reinsurance’ means reinsurance of a part of a single risk in which cession
is negotiated separately and the Reinsurer and the Cedant have the option of accepting or
declining each individual Risk;
11) ‘Financial Year’ shall mean the period as defined in Section 2 (41) of the Companies
Act, 2013;
12) ‘Fronting’ means a process of transferring risk in which a cedant cedes most of or all of
the assumed insurance risk to a reinsurer;
13) ‘Foreign Reinsurer’s Branch’ hereinafter called by acronym ‘FRB’ means a branch of a
Foreign Company engaged in re-insurance business, who has been granted certificate of
registration by the Authority under the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of
2/10
India (Registration and Operations of Branch Offices of Foreign Reinsurers other than
Lloyd’s) Regulations, 2015 and under the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority
of India (Lloyd’s India) Regulations, 2016;
14) ‘International Financial Service Centre (IFSC) Insurance Office’ herein after called by
acronym ‘IIO’ means a branch office of an insurer or a reinsurer domiciled in India or
outside, which has been granted with a certificate of registration by the Authority to set up
its office in an IFSC to transact insurance business or reinsurance business or both;
15) ‘Indian Insurer’, for the purpose of these regulations, shall mean an ‘insurer’ as defined
under section 2(9) of the Act, which has been granted certificate of registration by the
Authority; and shall also include ‘Exempted Insurers’;
16) ‘Insurance segments’ for the purpose of these regulations, shall mean and include the
following-
i. Fire;
ii. Marine;
iii. Motor;
iv. Health (including Personal Accident & Travel), other than policies issued by insurers
transacting Life Insurance business,
v. Crop
vi. Miscellaneous;
viii. Any other segment (under miscellaneous segment) which contributes more than 10
percent of the Gross Written Premium of the Miscellaneous segment of business;
ix. Any other segment as may be specified by the Authority from time to time;
17) ‘Insurance Pool’ means any joint underwriting operation of insurance or reinsurance
business, in which the participating Indian insurers assume a predetermined and fixed
share in all business written;
18) “Reinsurance slip” is a document, which provides the abridged details of the risk, terms
and conditions offered for reinsurance;
19) ‘Retrocedant’ means a reinsurer, who transfers (cedes) a portion of the assumed risk to
another reinsurer (called as retrocessionaire)
21) ‘Retention’ means the portion of the risk which a cedant assumes for its own account;
22) ‘Reinsurance contract’ is a commercial agreement legally binding on all the parties
3/10
evidenced by a Reinsurance Slip or Cover Note or other relevant document.
23) Words and expressions used and not defined in these regulations but defined in the Act
or Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority Act, 1999 (41 of 1999) or the General
Insurance Business Nationalisation Act, 1972 (57 of 1972) or the Life Insurance
Corporation Act, 1956 (31 of 1956), rules or regulations made there under shall have the
meanings respectively assigned to them in those Acts or rules or regulations.
3. Reinsurance Programme:
(I) Objectives
The Reinsurance Programme of every Indian Insurer shall be guided by the following
objectives to:
c) Securing the best possible reinsurance coverage required to protect the interest of the
policy holders and cedants at a reasonable cost;
1. maintain the maximum possible retention in commensuration with its financial strength,
quality of risks and volume of business;
2. formulate a suitable insurance segment-wise retention policy; bearing in mind the above
stated objectives, duly approved by its Board.
b) Indian Insurers transacting life insurance business shall maintain a minimum retention of
50% of the sum-at-risk at an overall life insurance portfolio level.
c) The Authority may require an Indian Insurer to justify its retention policy and may give
such directions as considered necessary to fulfill the objectives of these regulations.
a. commence its annual reinsurance programme from the beginning of every financial year;
b. submit to the Authority, its Board approved Reinsurance Programme along with its
retention policy for the forthcoming financial year, 45 days before the commencement of
the financial year;
c. file with the Authority, its Board approved Final Reinsurance Program incorporating the
changes, if any, within 30 days of the commencement of the financial year.
4/10
d. file with the Authority any new or revision of reinsurance arrangement (made after the
final reinsurance programme is submitted under regulation ), giving full details with related
documents, reasons for such an arrangement together with Board approved copy within 15
days of approval of the Board.
ii. The Board of the Indian Insurer, while formulating the reinsurance programme and the
retention policy, shall ensure that the reinsurance arrangements are effective and
appropriate by taking into consideration, inter-alia, the following factors:
a) Business mix, overall risk appetite, type and extent of reinsurance protection required;
iii. The Final Reinsurance Programme shall include, but not limited to, the following:
c) Insurance Segment-wise statement of net retention ratio for the current year and for the
previous three years;
d) Insurance Segment wise statement of the actual premium income for the last financial
year and the projected premium income for the forthcoming financial year;
f) Reinsurer wise details of actual placements during previous year for each Insurance
Segment;
g) Insurance Segment wise Statement of Reinsurance cost (in terms of quantum as well as
percentage to Gross Written Premium) giving details of Gross Written Premium, premium
ceded on proportional arrangements, premium ceded on non-proportional arrangements
and on any Structured / alternative risk transfer arrangement along with Statement showing
projected costs for the forthcoming year and the actual costs for the previous three years.
i) A certificate, duly signed by the Chief Executive Officer (in case of exempted insurer, the
Head of the insurance Division) declaring and confirming compliance of Order of
Preference in respect of ‘Obtaining Best Terms’ and ‘Offering for Participation’ on each and
every reinsurance placement to be made is as per the extant regulations.
b) have the catastrophe modeling report and the basis along with return period estimates,
on which the quantum of catastrophe protection is purchased for each of the perils such as
earthquake, flood, inundation, storm, cyclone for the forthcoming year duly approved by
their Board.
Every Indian insurer shall maintain and make available to the Authority for inspection, if so
required, copies of each and every reinsurance contract wordings, copies of cover notes
along with other related documents and the list of reinsurers, their credit rating and their
shares in the proportional & non-proportional reinsurance arrangement.
I. No Indian Insurer shall place its reinsurance business with any CBR, which does not
satisfy the following eligibility criteria: –
a) The CBR is a legal insurance or reinsurance entity in its home country, regulated and
supervised by its home country regulators for past three continuous years.
b) The CBR has at least a credit rating of BBB (from Standard & Poor) or equivalent rating
from an international rating agency for immediately preceding three years.
c) The home country of the CBR has signed Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement with
India.
d) The CBR has solvency margin or capital adequacy not less than as stipulated by the
home country regulators for past three continuous years.
II. The Authority, on a case to case basis, on application received from the cedants, may
consider relaxations of eligibility criteria mentioned at (b) and (c) above as deemed
appropriate for reasons recorded. No Cedant shall place any business with such otherwise
ineligible CBRs without specific prior approval of the Authority.
a. Every cedant shall obtain best terms for its reinsurance coverage requirements at least
from (i) Indian Reinsurers who have been transacting business for not less than past three
continuous years, (ii) at least three from FRBs;
b. In case of non-receipt of response from the above entities and for commercial reasons,
the cedant may obtain best terms for its reinsurance protection requirements from:
6/10
i. IIOs of foreign insurers or reinsurers transacting reinsurance business and having credit
rating of A- from S&P or equivalent rating from any other international financial and credit
rating agencies. No cedant shall obtain the terms from any IIO with credit rating below A-
from S&P and equivalent;
ii. CBRs with credit rating of A- from S&P or equivalent rating from any other international
financial and credit rating agencies. No cedant shall obtain the terms from any CBR with
credit rating below A- from S&P and equivalent.
c. No Cedant, except through the FRBs, shall obtain best terms directly from the CBRs,
which are group companies of FRBs, unless otherwise prior approval is obtained from the
Authority.
d. No cedant shall seek any best term from any Indian Insurer transacting direct insurance
business.
a. Every Cedant shall offer best terms, for participation in the following order of preference:
(i) to Indian Reinsurers who have been transacting business for not less than past three
continuous years and then to other Indian Reinsurers;
(ii) FRBs and thereafter to the IIO or CBR which provided lead terms with meaningful
capacity of not less than 5% for treaties and 10% for facultative reinsurance business;
(iii) to IIOs, other than those as at (ii) above, transacting reinsurance business and other
Indian Insurers;
b. No cedant, except through the FRBs, shall make a direct offer for participation to the
CBRs, which are group companies of FRBs, unless otherwise prior approval is obtained
from the Authority.
c. No cedant shall offer for participation to any Indian Insurer, transacting direct insurance
business, to lead on any of its reinsurance placements.
III. Nothing in Regulations 5(I) and (II) shall apply to the following:
6. Cession limits:
7/10
Reinsurance placements shall be subject to the following overall cession limits that can be
made by a cedant to any particular CBR:
Rating of the CBR from Standard & Poor or Overall limit of all cessions of the cedant with a
equivalent particular CBR
i. The proposal for an Insurance Pool could be initiated by any of Indian Insurer by
submitting a proposal to the Authority.
ii. The Authority, after examining various factors including its objectives, basis, capacity for
participation, limits of liabilities, terms and conditions, may permit formation of domestic
insurance or reinsurance pool(s). The Authority, wherever necessary, shall also suo moto
direct Indian insurers to create and participate in domestic insurance pools.
iii. Constitution of the insurance pools and selection of administrator shall be as per the
direction of the Authority.
iv. The Pool Administrator shall submit the returns, details of reinsurance arrangement,
statements on the performance of the pool, in the manner and periodicity as stipulated by
the Authority from time to time.
An Indian Insurer shall submit, to the Authority, specific proposals on ART solutions.
The Authority, after necessary examination and on being satisfied with the type of ART
solutions, the risk transfer tests and other related matters, may allow the ART proposal on a
case to case basis by recording the basis and terms.
Every Indian Insurer (transacting direct insurance business) for writing inward reinsurance
business shall:
b. file with the Authority, its inward reinsurance underwriting policy (stating the classes of
business, insurance segments, geographical scope, underwriting limits, and performance
objectives) duly approved by its Board along with the Reinsurance programme within the
time lines specified in regulation 3 above; and
c. file with the Authority any change to the inward reinsurance underwriting policy as and
when a change is made duly approved by its Board within 15 days of Board approval.
8/10
Every Indian Insurer shall submit to the Authority information and returns relating to its
reinsurance transactions in such form and manner as the Authority may stipulate from time
to time.
a) These Regulations repeal the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India
(General Insurance – Reinsurance) Regulations, 2016 and Insurance Regulatory and
Development Authority (Life Insurance -Reinsurance) Regulations, 2013.
b) Unless otherwise provided by these regulations, nothing in these regulations shall deem
to invalidate arrangements entered prior to these regulations coming into force.
c) Regulation 5 (I) and 5 (II) of these Regulations supersede and replace Regulation 28(9)
of the Insurance Regulatory Development Authority of India (Registration and Operations of
Branch Offices of Foreign Reinsurers other than Lloyd’s) Regulations, 2015.
e) The words “ for category of reinsurance business” under regulation 22 and the words “ in
category II” under regulation 28(8)bii of the Insurance Regulatory Development Authority of
India (Registration and Operations of Branch Offices of Foreign Reinsurers other than
Lloyd’s) Regulations, 2015 shall be deleted.
f) Regulation 28(8)c and 28(8)d of the Insurance Regulatory Development Authority of India
(Registration and Operations of Branch Offices of Foreign Reinsurers other than Lloyd’s)
Regulations, 2015 shall be deleted.
9/10
Regulations, 2016 shall be deleted.
j) The words “as per regulation 8(a)” under regulation 50(7)b and the words “in Category- II”
under regulation 50(7)b(ii) of the Insurance Regulatory Development Authority of India
(Lloyd’s India) Regulations, 2016 shall be deleted.
a. The Authority may call for further information or explanation, as may be necessary, in
respect of matters related to the reinsurance Program and may direct the Indian insurer to
carry out necessary changes in the reinsurance Program filed with the Authority.
b. The Authority may issue guidelines stipulating such terms and conditions for reinsurance
placements including-
c. In order to remove doubts or difficulties that may arise in the application or interpretation
of any of the provisions of these Regulations, the Chairperson of the Authority may issue
appropriate clarifications or guidelines as deemed necessary.
Annexure-II
Format for furnishing comments on the draft IRDAI (Reinsurance) Regulations, 2018
Name of the Stakeholder:
Posted Under
10/10