Life insurance premium collection drops 12% in September

The life insurance industry saw a 12.69 per cent drop in new business premium collection to Rs 8,392.84 crore in September compared with Rs 9,612.73 crore in the same month a year ago, data released by the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (Irda) showed.
Income from selling of new policies during April-September dropped 21 per cent compared with the same period a year ago. The industry had collected Rs 49,046.01 crore in April-September 2011, compared with Rs 62,361.34 crore during April-September 2010.

The industry collected Rs 49,064 crore in the first six months of the financial year compared with Rs 62,361 crore collected in the same period last year.

The drop was led by individual regular premium policies as collections from this segment dropped 6.21 per cent to Rs 3,294.69 crore in September from Rs 3,512.92 crore in the year-ago period.

Collections from group regular premium policies increased almost three times to Rs 1,244.44 crore from Rs 400.09 crore in September 2010.

During April-September 2011, group single premium collection rose 38.08 per cent to Rs 16,858.79 crore from Rs 12,209.50 crore in the year-ago period.

Individual single premium collection declined 59.14 per cent from Rs 18,836.66 crore in April-September 2010 period to Rs 7,696.65 crore in April-September 2011.