IDRA gets acting chairman, yet quorum crisis remains

The government on Wednesday appointed an acting chairman to the country’s insurance regulatory body, but it still lacks a quorum of three members needed to make decisions for the insurance industry, a major financial sector.

Presently, there are a total of 79 firms, including two government corporations, in the insurance sector regulated by the Insurance Development and Regulatory Authority (IDRA).

For the last one week, the post of the chairman of IDRA had been lying vacant.

The government appointed Dr M Mosharrof Hossain as the acting chairman, but the quorum crisis still remains, as he has already been serving as a member.

According to a circular issued by the Financial Institutions Division, Dr Hossain will serve as the acting chairman as an additional duty. With him, there are now only two members at IDRA. The other member is Mr Dalil Uddin.

As per the Insurance Act of 2010, a quorum of at least three members, including the chairman, are needed to make any decisions.

The Act requires IDRA to have a total of five members, including the chairman. But in its nearly one decade of existence, the regulatory body rarely saw five members at a time.