Life insurers close Q1 with 65% growth in first year premiums; LIC beats industry

Life insurance companies have clocked 65 percent year-on-year (YoY) growth in the first year premiums in Q1.

Data from the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) showed that life insurers collected new premiums of Rs 60,637.22 crore for the quarter ended June 30.

Among the companies, Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) posted an 81 percent YoY growth in new premiums at Rs 44,794.78 crore in Q1. Private insurers, on the other hand, posted a 32 percent YoY growth in premiums to Rs 15,842.44 crore in the June quarter.

Despite the fact that the first quarter is considered a slow one for insurance companies, IRDAI data shows that this year proved to be an exception for the life insurance sector.

With respect to the individual private life insurers, HDFC Life Insurance collected Rs 3,981.98 crore, showing a 48.7 percent YoY growth.

SBI Life Insurance collected Rs 3,152.44 crore, showing a 52 percent YoY growth.

ICICI Prudential Life Insurance collected Rs 2,226.14 crore, showing a 29 percent growth.

In terms of absolute growth, Tata AIA Life showed a 100 percent YoY growth collecting new premiums of Rs 577.43 crore in Q1.

A handful of companies including Aditya Birla Sun Life, Aviva Life, DHFL Pramerica Life, Edelweiss Tokio Life, Exide Life and IDBI Federal Life posted de-growth in first-year premiums for Q1.

While the premium collections for the life insurance industry as a whole has gone up, the number of policies/schemes continue to see flat growth. For Q1, there was a 3.47 percent drop in the number of policies and schemes. This means that the policies being sold are of higher ticket size.

Here, private life insurers posted a 9.7 percent growth in policies/schemes while LIC posted an 8.2 percent drop.