The country's life and non-life insurance companies will no longer be able to conduct online training programmes for agents, the insurance regulator said in a circular today.

In addition, the insurers will have to conduct the trainings by quality trainers and maintain a list of trainers.

The insurance companies will also have to take prior approval from the Insurance Development and Regulatory Authority (IDRA) to conduct any training for the agents, according to the circular.

The title, duration and training schedule, location, number of trainees and evaluation method of the training course should be sent to the IDRA at least seven workdays before the start of the training to take prior approval, the IDRA said.

The instructions have been issued to insurance companies to ensure transparency and quality in conducting mandatory training programmes for insurance agents, it said.

Bangladesh has 81 insurance companies, of which 35 companies deal with life insurance and 46 non-life.