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.
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.