The department of post is in the process of floating a separate company to bring its Postal Life Insurance and Rural Postal Life Insurance products under the ambit of the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority, an official said on Saturday.

Director, Postal Services, Harpreet Singh said that PLI and RPLI sold by the postal department are not regulated by IRDA now.

These products would have to brought under the purview of IRDA within a year, he told reporters in Kolkata.

The postal department plans to set up a new company for its insurance products and an investment board for this will be formed.

Once the new company is put in place, the postal department will be able to introduce new life insurance products in tune with the market competition.

The postal department is managing Rs 9,000 crore (Rs 90 billion) under PLI and Rs 3,500 crore (Rs 35 billion) under RPLI.

At present, central government, state government, PSU employees are eligible to subscribe to PLI.

The postal department entered into an agreement with HDFC Bank [Get Quote] on Saturday for loans from the bank against securities such as National Savings Certificate and Kisan Vikas Patra.