Non-life insurance premium rises 5% in February

National Insurance, New India Assurance, Oriental Insurance, United India Insurance saw their gross premium collection rise by 2.6% y-o-y in Feb

The premium income of non-life insurance companies, including that of four public sector entities, grew 5% in February to Rs 6,066.30 crore.

The four PSU entities - National Insurance, New India Assurance, Oriental Insurance and United India Insurance - saw their gross premium collection rise by 2.6% year-on-year to Rs 3,394.83 crore in February.

During the month, these four entities accounted for about 56% of the total premium collected by general insurance companies.

The gross premium of 28 players in the general insurance market during April-February period of 2013-14 rose by 12.84% to Rs 69,833.07 crore, according to data available with Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (Irda).

For April-February period, the premium collected by public general insurance companies grew by 10.9% from a year earlier to Rs 39,069.61 crore, Irda data showed.

Amongst the private sector players, L&T General witnessed a rise of 37% in its premium income to Rs 21.40 crore in February. SBI General's premium income rose by 31.2% on the year to Rs 104.03 crore and that of HDFC Ergo General increased by 28.22% to Rs 261.08 crore.

Among other private players, the premium income of Reliance General increased to Rs 180.12 crore, up 16.2% from a year ago. However, ICICI Lombard and Bajaj Allianz saw only marginal rise of 4.2% and 5.8% rise in their premium incomes at Rs 517.18 crore and Rs 335.52 crore respectively.

The gross premium collected by 24 private players in February were up by 8% to Rs 2,671.48 crore. Their cumulative premium income during the first 11 months of the current fiscal increased by 15.41% to Rs 30,763.45 crore.