"The law (insurance) does not provide companies to make public, but the governor may," Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) J Hari Narayan told reporters on the sidelines of an industry summit here.

He said that the industry competes with other sectors of the capital and the IPO would raise some. "The capital has grown. We need capital," said Narayan.

Click here to know about Health Insurance

He said the final guidelines for the IPO of the life insurance industry will be ready later this month.

But none of the existing laws, whether of the Companies Act or Sebi acts or IRDA mandatory for all companies in all sectors for a list. If IRDA is to have its way, then all the laws mentioned above will be amended after the LIC Act.

LIC, despite the country's largest financial company, wholly owned by the state and is not a company incorporated under the Companies Act, but subject to the LIC Act.

It is interesting to note that among the 22 private players are just a few, such as HDFC Standard Life and Reliance Life, wants to take advantage of the market, particularly to free resources. Most players say they are not trying to raise capital.

Last month, IRDA had issued draft guidelines for insurance companies to raise capital through public offerings.

According to the draft rules, only those with 10 years of solid performance and financial would be allowed to access the capital markets.

Assurance planning of the public offer is to seek "the formal approval" of the IRDA and then approach Sebi for final approval, the draft regulations had said. As part of the selection criteria should insurers have maintained solvency rules prescribed in the past six quarters, he said.

Source: [ET]