SEBI Explores Adding Insurance Policies to Consolidated Account Statements

Key Takeaways

• SEBI Chairman Tuhin Kanta Pandey said the regulator has written to IRDAI to explore including insurance information in the Consolidated Account Statement. 
• CAS already provides a consolidated view of mutual funds and securities, while eCAS coverage has expanded to equities, debt securities and NPS investments. 
• SEBI is also working on incorporating bank deposit information through the Account Aggregator framework. 

The Securities and Exchange Board of India is exploring the inclusion of insurance-policy information in the Consolidated Account Statement, potentially expanding the statement beyond securities and mutual fund holdings into a broader financial ledger. 

SEBI Chairman Tuhin Kanta Pandey said he had written to the chairman of the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India to examine the inclusion of insurance information. 

The existing CAS framework provides investors with a combined view of transactions across mutual funds and securities held in demat accounts. The electronic CAS has subsequently broadened to cover equities, debt securities and National Pension System investments. 

Insurance would add another major financial asset and protection category to that consolidated view. 

The proposal follows an earlier step involving bank deposits. The Reserve Bank of India has said SEBI-regulated depositories will be facilitated to include bank-deposit information in CAS through the Account Aggregator framework. 

Together, the initiatives point towards an account statement that could eventually provide a broader picture of a household's financial position across bank deposits, mutual funds, shares, debt securities, pension assets and insurance. 

The Account Aggregator framework is expected to play an important role in connecting the information. It enables consent-based sharing of financial data among regulated entities rather than requiring investors to gather information separately from multiple institutions. 

Pandey also said SEBI was working to improve the availability and quality of securities-market information that can be shared under the framework, subject to appropriate investor consent and safeguards. 

The inclusion of insurance is still at an exploratory stage. SEBI's communication with IRDAI does not, by itself, establish an implementation date or final scope. 

Investors should therefore distinguish between the existing CAS framework and the proposed broader version. Mutual fund and securities information is already available through CAS, while insurance integration will depend on further regulatory and technical work.