1. This has reference to the File and Use Circular No: IRDA/ACTL/FUP/VER 2.0/DEC 2001/ dated: 12th December 2001, and also CIRCULAR NO: IRDA/ACTL/FUP/VER 2.0/DEC 2003/ dated 18th December 2003; which the insurers are required to comply with, before launching the product in the market.

2. In this process, it has been decided that every life insurance product, whether individual or group, and every rider, should be identified with a unique number; and this number has to be quoted in all relevant documents furnished to the policyholders, other users (public, distribution channels) and also in the statutory returns filed with the IRDA.

3. This unique number will have ten characters/digits as follows:-

Notes: C1: 1-3: numeric to indicate the registration number of Insurer allotted by the IRDA to identify the name of insurer in 3 digits;
C2: 4 is an alphabet to indicate the nature of product/rider: L would indicate linked product; N a non-linked product; A: Rider (linked); B: Rider (non-linked) and C: Rider (for both linked as well as non-linked;
C3: 5 to 7 : numeric value to indicate that the product is the nth product of insurer—this is a running serial number to be assigned by IRDA (starting from 001);
C4: 8 : alphabet –V – to indicate the Version. This is same for all products/riders;
C5: 9 -10: numeric value to indicate the number of times the product is modified—this is a running serial number starting from 01 for new product, for instance, 02 would indicate Version 02 of the product available for marketing from the date the modification is cleared; the older version could indicate that they are no longer in the market from the date of the latest modification.

For instance, 107L050V02 would indicate that this is 50th product, which is linked and modified twice, of an an insurer with registration number 107 given by the IRDA. 4. IRDA would publish in its website www.irdaindia.org the details of products cleared by the Authority, for public information, as below:-

Notes: Col (1) would indicate the running serial number of products/riders;
Col (2) is the name of insurer registered with IRDA;
Col (3) is the IRDA Product/rider number allotted by the IRDA;
Col (4) is the brand name of the product/rider corresponding to the IRDA Product/Rider Number;
Col (5) would reflect the date from which the insurer is allowed to offer the product/rider under col (3) for sale in the market;
Col (6) would reflect the date from which the insurer stopped sale of the product/rider or modified the product/rider under col (3) with prior clearance from the IRDA.

Col (2) would provide hyper-link to the insurer’s website for public use.

5. All life insurers are hereby requested to obtain the IRDA Product/Rider Number for all existing products/riders which are being offered for sale in the market. In this regard, insurers are requested to furnish the details in the format mentioned in para 3 above for all the existing products (except col (3)) for allotment of IRDA Product/Rider number within 15 days from the date of receipt of this circular. However, where an existing product has been modified from the date of first clearance, the insurer shall indicate the last two digits of the unique number in col (3) which will be verified by the Authority at the time of allotting the said number i.e. the insurer shall indicate the number of times the product was modified from the date of first clearance.

6. For all the new products the Authority shall allot this number at the time of clearance of the product/rider.

7. The above procedure comes into force since 1st April, 2007.


R. Kannan
Member (Actuary)