Life insurers see strong growth

Mumbai: The post-tax saving season has begun on a high note for life insurers. According to the data released by the insurance regulator, the ‘new business premium’ of the life insurance industry for the month of April grew at 37 per cent to Rs 9,981 crore. Usually, April is a dull month for the life insurers.

The private players witnessed a high growth rate of 61 per cent to Rs 4,714 crore during the month whereas public sector giant Life Insurance Corporation saw a 21 per cent growth in new business premium to Rs 5,268 crore, driven largely by group business.

"April, usually a non-performing month for the life insurance industry has raked up pretty good business numbers in 2019 basically due to improved financial literacy among the general public coupled with increasing awareness of the products by large and listed private players. The trend implies that financialisation of household savings is on the rise," said Deepak Kumar, Rese-arch Analyst of Narnolia Financial Advisors.

The total weighted received premium (a measure of total premiums from new and existing retail and group customers) showed a healthy growth of 21 per cent and 32 per cent by LIC and private players, respectively. The weighted individual single premium witnessed a mild edge towards the public entity as they grew at 19 per cent while the private players witnessed an 18 per cent growth. On the basis of total weighted received premium LIC lost a bit of market share.

In April, LIC's market share stood at 44 per cent followed by ICICI Prudential Life, SBI Life and HDFC Life Insurance at 11.2 per cent, 10.6 per cent and 9.3 per cent, respectively.

April has particularly been fruitful for the listed players in new business premium. All the four listed players saw high growth rates. SBI Life (122 per cent growth) Max Life (21.38 per cent) HDFC Life (86 per cent) and ICICI Prudential (36 per cent).