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Life Insurers' New Business Premium Falls In July; Policies Sold Jump

New business premium, or a measure of revenue, fell 37.5% over the preceding month to Rs 20,434.7 crore in July.

Signage of Life Insurance Corporation of India is pictured atop its headquarters at Nariman Point in Mumbai, India. (Photo: BloombergQuint)
Signage of Life Insurance Corporation of India is pictured atop its headquarters at Nariman Point in Mumbai, India. (Photo: BloombergQuint)

Life insurers' new business premium fell in July even as the number of policies sold rose.

New business premium, or a measure of revenue, fell 37.5% over the preceding month to Rs 20,434.7 crore in July, according to data released by Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India. The decline came after a fall in the group single and yearly renewable category that witnessed a surge in the previous month.

New business premium also contracted 9.5% over the year earlier despite a low base. It even declined 9.8% over July 2019.

Life Insurance Corp.:

  • New business premium fell 50.4% sequentially to Rs 12,030.9 crore.

  • The company’s group yearly renewable premiums surged single policy premiums surged 238.6% month-on-month in July, while its group single premiums fell 59.2%. The group single premiums contribute about 61% of the public insurer's revenue of July.

Private Insurers:

  • New business premium fell 0.59% over the previous month to Rs 8,403.8 crore in July.

  • The group non-single premiums, which contribute to less than 1% of their total revenue, surged more than eight times.

While new business premium of private insurers rose 4.2% year-on-year, Life Insurance Corp.'s fell 17.2%.

The number of life insurance policies sold rose 31.04% over June and 16.4% over the year earlier. This was aided by a 27.2% and 31.3% sequential jump in individual single and non-single plans sold, respectively.

"In FY22, we expect growth to get a leg-up from the linked products as the segment has seen positive traction since the middle of FY21," Nirmal Bang said in its report. "We expect non-par savings and protection sales to grow at a higher rate."

How Private Insurers fared…

HDFC Life

  • Its new business premium rose 16.8% over the preceding month to Rs 2,047.5 crore in July.

  • Year-on-year, it increased 3.2%.

SBI Life

  • The company’s new business premium fell 3% month-on-month to Rs 1,800.6 crore in July, while it fell 12.2% on an annual basis.

ICICI Prudential Life

  • Premium declined 12.9% over the preceding month to Rs 1,157 crore in July. It jumped 33% over a year earlier.