Newsletter
POLICY REVIEW PROCEDURES STREAMLINED
The Department of Insurance, MOF amended its Life Insurance Product Review Criteria last year. The MOF changed the review procedure for new life insurance products from a prior approval system to a two-track prior approval and filing system. For products to which the filing system applies, which include life insurance and health insurance policies, the time required for review by the MOF has been reduced from about three months to half a month.
Under the filing system, insurance companies submit reference copies of new policies to the Department of Insurance; if a company receives no reply, the policy in question automatically becomes effective from the 16th day after submission. Insurance products to which this system applies are mostly products with a mature market.
Products to which the prior approval system still applies are more recently introduced products such as annuity insurance. However, the Department of Insurance states that the time required for review under this procedure has also been reduced from 90 days to around 70 days, and the MOF hopes to further reduce it to between 30 to 45 days.