New Delhi, June 12 -- As India's insurance regulator tightens norms around disclosures, commissions and distribution practices, insurers will need to move beyond transactional selling and focus on long-term customer relationships, according to Asit Rath, managing director and chief executive officer of Aviva Life Insurance.

Rath believes the industry's biggest challenge is not claim settlement but systemic mis-selling, and says technology and data will fundamentally reshape underwriting and distribution in the years ahead.

Mint spoke with Rath about bancassurance, structural reforms in distribution commissions, under-insurance in India, and how data-driven ecosystems can alter underwriting.

Edited excerpts:

The bancassurance partners ...