 "Life insurance")
Life insurers reported 48 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y) growth in new business premium (NBP) in February on the back of the strong increase shown by Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC), coupled with robust performance by private insurers.
According to the data released by Life Insurance Council, the NBP of life insurance companies came in at Rs 33,913.18 crore, 48.43 per cent higher than the Rs 22,847.65 crore in the year-ago period.
While LIC’s premium rose by 67.48 per cent to Rs 19,896.01 crore as compared to Rs 11,879.49 crore in the same period a year earlier, private life insurance companies reported 27.80 growth to Rs 14,017.17 crore from Rs 10,968.16 crore.
NBP is the premium of life insurance companies from new policies for a particular year. It is the sum of the first-year premium and single premium, reflecting the total from new businesses.
LIC witnessed growth because of a surge in group single premium. It is the largest player in the group single-premium market. The group single premium of the company nearly doubled to Rs 14,661.31 crore. Meanwhile, even as private insurers lead in the individual segment they posted healthy growth across segments.
Among large private players, the premium of the largest private life insurer, SBI Life, grew around 32 per cent to Rs 2,648.86 crore.
Meanwhile, other private-sector players posted healthy growth. HDFC Life’s NBP rose by 14.49 per cent to Rs 2,602.11 crore and ICICI Prudential Life Insurance’s increased 32.54 per cent to Rs 1,763.33 crore.
The NBP of Bajaj Allianz Life grew by 12.92 per cent to Rs 1,050.04 crore and Max Life Insurance’s climbed around 51 per cent to Rs 1,097.09 crore.
According to experts, usually the February-March period is important for insurance companies typically because customers buy policies and products for tax saving by late January or in February. This is likely to have led to the growth.
In April-February FY24, the NBP of life insurers slipped 0.22 per cent Y-o-Y to more than Rs 3.17 trillion as compared to above Rs 3.18 trillion in the same period of the previous year. LIC’s premium dropped 8.35 per cent to above Rs 2.03 trillion whereas private insurers’ grew by 14.09 per cent Y-o-Y to more than Rs 1.15 trillion.
