The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (Irda) is mulling allowing insurers to trade in gold ETFs and equity derivatives, Business Standard reports. The regulator may also permit the insurers to take part in the securities lending and borrowing (SLB) segment to give them more options to hedge risks. Irda has set up a committee under its member, RK Nair, to put together new investment guidelines. The measures will provide insurers more options to hedge short-term and long-term investment risks, thereby protecting policyholders. The insurers will be able to meet long-term investment requirements of the companies as they have few options at present apart from the 10-year government securities.

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