The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (Irda) asked the Life Insurance Council to revise its decision regarding group covers on mutual fund (MFs) products. The Life Insurance Council is a self-regulatory body of insurers to represent the insurance firms. The regulatory body described the decision as very injudicious and unfair. The Chairman of Association of Mutual Funds in India, A P Kurian termed the decision as unilateral and demanded its early revision. It is recalled that some life insurance companies have ended the system of bundling on a host of financial products.

Reliance Mutual Fund and Birla Sun Life Mutual Fund are offering systematic investment plan (SIP) products with insurance policies and likely to stop the service very soon. Some asset management companies (AMCs) have also objected the move of life insurers about intervening in their area of interest. They demanded from the security and exchange board of India (SEBI) to allow them to sell insurance products to their investors and collect premium from them. It is to be noted that almost every insurance company in India have separate arm for insurance and mutual fund. LIC, LICMF, UTI ICICI, HDFC, Birla, Kotak and Reliance are some examples having separate arm for mutual funds and insurance.