Life insurers' new premium income down 16 pc at Rs 17,491 cr in Sep

Life insurers' premium income from new business fell by 16.28 per cent to Rs 17,490.68 crore in September, data from Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (Irdai) showed Thursday.

The insurance companies had earned Rs 20,892.07 as premium from new policies in the same month a year ago.

Of the all 24 life insurance companies, state-owned LIC witnessed a decline of nearly 30 per cent as premium income from new policies to Rs 10,778.81 crore in September as against Rs 15,302.99 crore in the same month previous year.

However, the 23 private sector players recorded an increase of 20 per cent in their new business premium or the first year premium at Rs 6,711.86 crore during the month under review from Rs 5,589.08 crore in year-ago period.

Among the private sector life insurers, SBI Life witnessed a jump of 36.35 per cent in new premium at Rs 1,115.11 crore as against Rs 817.81 crore year ago. HDFC Standard Life 30.45 per cent (Rs 1,459.80 crore); ICICI Prudential Life 11.47 per cent (Rs 831.24 crore); Aditya Birla Sun Life 50.58 per cent (Rs 541.27 crore); Max Life 25.39 per cent (Rs 463.49 crore); Tata AIA Life 57.81 per cent (Rs 182.32 crore) and Edelweiss Tokio Life 67.11 per cent (Rs 40.68 crore).

India First Life recorded a jump of 279.43 per cent in new premium collection to Rs 345.36 crore during the month as against Rs 91.02 crore in September 2017.

Those who registered a fall in new business premium included Bajaj Allianz Life down 40.54 per cent at Rs 500.21 crore and DHFL Pramerica Life down 6.53 per cent at Rs 110.64 crore.

Cumulatively, the overall premium collection by all the 24 players grew by 1.1 per cent to Rs 93,079.03 crore during April-September period of 2018-19, up from Rs 92,065.36 crore in same period of 2017-18.

For LIC, the April-September new business premium has come down by 6.95 per cent to Rs 63,480.68 crore from Rs 68,224.29 crore a year ago.

For the rest of private players the cumulative new premium income till September this fiscal registered a growth of 24.15 per cent at Rs 29,598.35 crore from Rs 23,841.06 crore.