Life insurers post 23% growth in first 4 months

Life insurance companies continued to witness positive growth in the new business premium for the first four months of the current financial year. Data from Life Insurance Council shows that new business premium of life insurers saw a rise of 22.66 per cent in the first four months of FY17 against the corresponding period in the previous financial year.

The growth in the industry was led by the Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) which saw its new business premium for the month of April-July at Rs 33,332.14 crore, a surge of 24.15 per cent compared to the previous year. On the other hand, private players achieved new business premium of Rs 11,914.86 crore, a growth of 18.69 per cent for first four months of the current financial year. Officials in the industry say that the surge in the premium was largely due to the huge participation in the unit-linked insurance plans (Ulips).

Players like HDFC Life, Max Life Insurance, Kotak Mahindra Old Mutual Life Insurance and SBI saw growth of 23-64 per cent for April-July. Market participants say that, in the last few months there has been active participation from all segments – single premium polices, traditional polices and group policies.