SEBI AND IRDA CLASH AGAIN

Indian regulators the Securities & Exchange Board of India (SEBI) and the Insurance & Regulatory Development Authority (IRDA) have clashed one more time, this time over SEBI's proposal to permit insurers to become proprietary trading members for newly approved debt trading on the local stock exchanges. IRDA is understood to be unhappy with the idea of insurers undertaking proprietary trading with money that is in effect being held in trust for policyholders. SEBI and IRDA clashed in 2010 when SEBI moved in on insurers selling Unit-Linked Insurance Products (ULIPs) which SEBI said were not really insurance products at all, but were savings products that should come under the purview of SEBI. The relationship between the two non-governmental organizations has been cool ever since.