Reliance General Insurance One Step Closer To Separate Health Insurance Arm
This would allow Reliance Capital to increase its stake in India’s growing health insurance sector.
India’s insurance regulator has given its first level of approval to Reliance General Insurance Company Ltd. to start a separate health insurance unit.
In a board meeting on Monday, the Insurance Regulatory Development Authority (IRDA) decided to provide the insurer a first-stage or R1 approval to carve out a separate retail health insurance arm from its general insurance business, a person close to the development told BloombergQuint. Insurance businesses require three levels of approvals to begin operations.
A formal notification in this regard will be available in another 3-4 days, the person said on the condition of anonymity.
An emailed query to Reliance General Insurance seeking confirmation remained unanswered.
The board of Reliance General Insurance had earlier approved the ‘transfer of existing retail health insurance business into separate 100 percent owned subsidiary of Reliance Capital’, according to an exchange filing dated March 16. This would allow Reliance Capital to increase its stake in India's growing health insurance sector, the filing added.
Currently, Reliance General’s health insurance business is spread across 175 branches in the country. The company’s premium from the health insurance business fell about 36 percent to Rs 344 crore in the year ended March 31, compared to the same period last year, according to the company’s filing.