Linking Aadhaar with insurance policies mandatory, says regulator

Linkage of Aadhaar number to insurance policies was mandatory under the Prevention of Money Laundering (Maintenance of Records) Second Amendment Rules, 2017, the IRDAI said.

Insurance regulator IRDAI said on Wednesday that linkage of unique identity number Aadhaar with insurance policies was mandatory and asked insurers to comply with the statutory norms.

People show their Aadhaar cards in Chennai. Linkage of Aadhaar with insurance policies is now mandatory. (PTI)

“The Authority clarifies that, linkage of Aadhaar number to insurance policies is mandatory under the Prevention of Money Laundering (Maintenance of Records) Second Amendment Rules, 2017,” the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) said.

The government in June had notified the Prevention of Money Laundering (Maintenance of Records) Second Amendment Rules, 2017 making Aadhaar and PAN/Form 60 mandatory for availing financial services including insurance and also for linking the existing policies with the same.

In a communication to all life and general insurance companies, IRDAI said the rules have “statutory force” and as such they have to implement them without awaiting further instructions.

Commenting on the communication, ICICI Lombard MD and CEO Bhargav Dasgupta said it was a progressive and logical step towards creating a unified platform for financial services and at the same time promote the government’s digitisation agenda.

“While there may be some short term challenges to overcome, we see significant long term benefits in terms of preventing frauds and streamlining the KYC process,” he said.

There are 24 life insurance companies and 33 general insurers (including standalone health insurers) operating in the country.