Syndicate Registration with the Indian Insurance Supervisor

Requirement to Register

In 2012, the Indian Insurance supervisor (‘IRDA’) introduced an annual registration requirement for cross border reinsurers (who do not have a physical presence in India).

Once successfully registered, a cross border reinsurer is allocated a unique registration number, which can be cited to evidence to Indian cedants or intermediaries that the appropriate cross border authorisation has been obtained from IRDA. The onus is on the Indian (re)insurer to ensure that reinsurance is only placed with registered cross border reinsurers.

A new unique registration number is issued each year. Registration is required to be completed by 31 March.

Syndicate registration process

Syndicates that wish to conduct cross border reinsurance in India are required to register with IRDA. Lloyd’s co-ordinates the annual registration of syndicates. Once successfully registered with IRDA, each syndicate’s unique registration number is made available on Crystal.

The 2014/15 registration, which completed at the end of March, saw 94 Lloyd’s syndicates (including incidental syndicates) registered for cross border reinsurance with IRDA.

Key registration issues

As the IRDA registration process has become more established, Lloyd’s has sought to further streamline the registration process for the market:

• Lloyd’s submits registration applications through a supportive local Indian insurer, to ensure documentation for each syndicate is filed in a timely fashion with IRDA. 
• In previous years Lloyd’s has faced challenges in obtaining registration for incidental syndicates. Also, newly formed syndicates which were unable to provide all of the required information, such as audited accounts for the previous year, were not registered.

Lloyd’s has been working closely with IRDA to address these issues and for the most recent (2014/15) registration, all new and incidental syndicates were successfully registered with IRDA.