SEBI is the regulator for the securities market (capital market) in India. It banned 14 life insurance companies for raising the funds through Unit Linked Insurance Policies (ULIP). ULIP is a life insurance policy which provides combination of insurance as well as investment. SEBI said that ULIP is a collective investment (as it is called in US), similar to mutual funds (as it is called in India). So any one launching collective investment scheme should take approval from SEBI. The life insurance companies against whom SEBI passed the order are SBI Life, ICICI Prudential, Tata AIG, Aegon Religare Life, Aviva Life, Bajaj Allianz, Bharti AXA, Birla Sunlife, HDFC Standard Life, ING Vysya Life, Kotak Mahindra Old Mutual Life, Max New York Life, Metlife India and Reliance Life. However, IRDA asked the companies to ignore the SEBI order and continue the business as usual. IRDA is the regulator for the insurance sector in India.
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