India’s proposed Public Insurance Registry (PIR) could do more than digitise the insurance ecosystem: it could change the way insurers price distribution and remunerate agents, by creating a common data layer on products, insurers, distributors and customer outcomes, IRDAI Chairman Ajay Seth said.
Seth described PIR as a “first-of-its-kind Digital Public Infrastructure anywhere in the world”, but its significance lies in what the infrastructure could enable once the data starts accumulating.
The registry is expected to capture information on sales quality, renewals, persistency, surrenders, complaints and mis-selling at the sales-personnel level. That could eventually allow insurers to move beyond a largely volume-driven commission system towards remuneration that reflects the quality and longevity of the customer relationship.
“What we need first is reliable measurement,” Seth said. Once the evidence base is in place, “outcome-linked remuneration can become more granular and credible.”
That opens the possibility of a more blended commission structure — a base level of remuneration within the regulatory ceiling, supplemented by rewards linked to persistency, servicing, suitability and the absence of mis-selling.