IRDAI's 137th Authority Meeting Approves Seven Insurance Regulations to Implement the Sabka Bima Sabki Raksha Act, Including a New Policyholder Protection Fund

India's insurance regulator has taken a batch of decisions that will shape how insurers, brokers and agents operate under the country's recently amended insurance laws. According to a summary of the minutes published by TaxGuru, the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) held its 137th Authority meeting on July 28, 2026, at 3 pm at its headquarters. Chairman Ajay Seth chaired the meeting, and part-time member Dr. Debasish Prusty joined virtually. The Authority approved seven sets of regulations after considering stakeholder comments, consultations with the Insurance Advisory Committee on July 21, 2026, and comments from the Department of Financial Services on July 27, 2026.

Most of the regulations bring IRDAI's framework into line with the Sabka Bima Sabki Raksha (Amendments to Insurance Laws) Act, 2025. The stated aims, according to the minutes summary, include ease of doing business, simpler processes, lower compliance costs and stronger oversight. Each regulation had been issued as an exposure draft in June 2026 for public comment, so the approvals follow a consultation period of about five to six weeks.

The first approval is the Policyholders' Education and Protection Fund Regulations, 2026, issued in draft on June 23. They set the governance, funding and use of the fund created under the 2025 Act. The fund draws on grants, donations and penalties, and its purposes include protecting policyholders, educating them and raising awareness, and promoting financial inclusion. The summary does not describe how money will be allocated or how much the fund is expected to hold.

The second is the Manner and Procedure for Imposition of Penalties Regulations, 2026, issued in draft on June 19. These set out how IRDAI imposes penalties for defaults or contraventions under the Insurance Act, 1938, the IRDA Act, 1999, and related rules and regulations. Clear procedure matters because penalties that are not applied through a transparent process can be challenged on appeal. The summary does not state penalty amounts.

Third, the Authority approved the Actuarial, Finance and Investment Functions of Insurers (Second Amendment) Regulations, 2026, which strengthen the prudential framework and actuarial oversight with an emphasis on operational clarity and rationalised processes. Fourth came the Registration, Capital Structure, Transfer of Shares and Amalgamation of Insurers (Amendment) Regulations, 2026, issued in draft on June 15. These align the rules with the revised provisions of the Insurance Act and are intended to facilitate capital infusion.

Fifth, the Third Party Administrators (Health Services) (Amendment) Regulations, 2026 align the framework for TPAs, the firms that process health insurance claims on behalf of insurers, with the 2025 Act.

The sixth item is probably the most significant for ordinary customers: the Insurance Intermediaries (Amendment) Regulations, 2026. They amend five existing regulations covering corporate agents (2015), insurance brokers (2018), insurance marketing firms (2015), web aggregators (2017) and common public service centres (2019). The stated goals are to make intermediaries accountable for their sales staff, to tighten oversight of sales practices in order to curb mis-selling and to improve transparency. Mis-selling, such as pushing an unsuitable product or misrepresenting a policy's benefits, is a recurring consumer complaint in Indian insurance, and making intermediary firms answerable for the conduct of individual salespeople gives them an incentive to train and supervise them.

The seventh is the Insurance Surveyors and Loss Assessors (Amendment) Regulations, 2026. These revise the licensing framework for surveyors and loss assessors, the professionals who assess damage in general insurance claims, to create a more transparent registration system, add offsite annual compliance monitoring and improve digital services.

The meeting also dealt with the regulator's own accounts. The summary says the Comptroller and Auditor General issued a preliminary draft separate audit report on May 8, 2025. IRDAI responded on May 27, 2026, and the final report was issued on July 21, 2026. The Authority adopted IRDAI's 2024-25 Annual Statement of Accounts and authorised the chairperson to handle the CAG's queries, forward the certified accounts and audit report to the central government, and publish the CAG's observations, IRDAI's response and the annual accounts.

There are limits to what can be concluded. The source summarises the minutes; it does not reproduce the detailed provisions, thresholds or penalty amounts, and it does not say when the regulations take effect or when they will be notified in the Gazette. Until the regulations are notified, insurers and intermediaries cannot treat them as in force, and readers should consult IRDAI's website for the final text.

What should consumers and businesses watch for? Policyholders should look for more explicit accountability from intermediaries, including clearer disclosures at the point of sale. Insurers should expect changes in how penalties are decided and in capital-raising rules. Brokers, agents and web aggregators will need to update their compliance and training processes. And the new protection fund will matter if it is funded and used as described, because it could support education campaigns and redress mechanisms.

The wider context is the government's goal of broader insurance coverage, which the 2025 Act supports with changes to the law. Regulations are where such principles become operational rules, so the content of the notified texts, rather than the headlines about their approval, will determine the impact on customers.