LIC hopeful of crossing new premium target this fiscal: Roy

Life Insurance Corporation today expressed hope that it could meet and even better the new premium target set for the current fiscal, having already booked Rs 23,000 crore worth of sales so far.
The Corporation had set a target of Rs 31,000 crore of new premium income this fiscal year and its Chairman S K Roy said the optimism comes from the fact that the Corporation has been witnessing growth in sales since December.
"We have grown in near-double digits in December, which only improved in January. We hope to close the March quarter in double digit sales; if not, at least close to double digits. So far this fiscal, our sales stood at Rs 23,000 crore."

But Roy was quick to note that the economic situation is challenging and the first half of the current fiscal was bad for LIC as it did not have any Unit Linked Insurance Plan (ULIP) policies in place.
In August last year, LIC had launched its new ULIP product called New Endowment Plus to arrest its falling market share.
When asked about the sales of its recently launched ULIP, Roy said since the August 15, 2015 launch, the Corporation has sold 10,000 units, while its e-Term plan sales stood at 6,000 policies.

It may be noted that during the first half of the current fiscal year, the new year premium income of private sector life insurers rose 15 per cent to Rs 8,549 crore over the same period last year, while that of LIC declined close to 11 per cent to Rs 8,491 crore, as of end-September 2015.

The private players growth was driven by ULIPs, despite the stock market volatility, industry analysts said.
ULIP sales now hold 50.2 per cent market share.
LIC's individual first year premium has been declining since new product regulations came into effect from January, 2014.
A major reason for the poor show by LIC was the absence of a ULIP in its product portfolio when customer preference shifted towards it with the revival of stock markets from mid-2013.
During 2014-15, LIC's individual first year premium was Rs 20,774 crore, a fall of 27 per cent compared with Rs 28,520 crore in 2013-14.

ICICI Prudential saw its individual first year premium grow 21 per cent to Rs 2,118 crore in H1, taking its markets hare among private players up by 1.21 per cent.
SBI Life Insurance grew 48 per cent to Rs 1,335 crore and strengthened its market share by 3.42 per cent. HDFC Life Insurance grew 15 per cent to Rs 1,282 crore; PNB Metlife rose 43 per cent to Rs 373 crore; Kotak Life grew by 87 per cent to Rs 329 crore.