India has defied the Asian trend by valuing life insurers more highly: Report

According to a McKinsey analysis, life insurers in India have been valued higher than those in other Asian nations like China, Japan, and Taiwan, making the Indian life insurance market a bright spot in the region.

Between 2012 and 2022, the valuation of life insurers in the region decreased and eventually converged with that of insurers worldwide. In markets like Taiwan and Japan, population declines and slower growth were the main causes of this. The slowdown in China's economy has an adverse effect on valuations as well. However, the Indian market's higher values have been backed by robust underlying factors and healthy growth momentum.

South East Asian countries are in the middle; growth, which halted during the Covid19 pandemic, is gradually picking up again, though at varying rates. This illustrates the difficult situation life insurers face in an area where investor perception and market mood are strongly entwined with technological, economic, and regulatory factors.

In developed and growing nations, domestic and foreign insurers are still vying for market dominance. Large multinational corporations have been expanding steadily throughout Asia over the last five years, steadily taking market share away from local insurers and smaller multinational corporations. In terms of market share, MNCs predominate in rising nations like Malaysia and Thailand, where this tendency is especially visible.

The two most unusual countries are China and India, where local firms like Ping An Life and the Life Insurance Corporation of India, respectively, are in charge. However, local and joint venture insurers, as well as foreign insurers, have been gaining market share from these nations' leaders.