Life insurance premium grows 26% to Rs 1.75 lakh crore in FY17

Life insurance firms have collected Rs 1,75,022.50 crore as premium from new policies in 2016-17, registering a growth of 26.2 per cent even as the total number of policies declined. In 2015-16 the number was Rs 1,38,657.31 crore in 2015-16 according to data from the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India. Interestingly, number of policies insured in the last fiscal fell to 2,64,56,645 from 2,67,40,088 in 2015-16, indicating high value policies subscribed by policyholders. LIC collected the highest premium of Rs 1,24,396.27 crore (71 per cent of total premium) during 2016-17, up 27.4 per cent from a year ago, data showed. Among the private firms, SBI Life’s insurance premium rose by 42.8 per cent to Rs 10,145.76 crore; HDFC Standard’s collection was up 34 per cent at Rs 8,696.21 crore and ICICI Prudential grew 16.2 per cent to Rs 7,863.40 crore.