Growth is back in insurance sector, says Irda chief

Focus was back into the group policies in the life insurance segment, while traditional life products were showing good traction of late, he said

Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (Irda) Chairman T S Vijayan on Saturday said the growth has returned to the insurance industry, as both life and non-life segments performed well in 2013-14.

The chairman said the new premium collections in the life insurance sector grew by 12.5 per cent in the year ended March, 2014, as compared to a six-per cent drop in new premium collections in the year-ago period.

The life insurance business is almost five times bigger than that of the non-life sector, hence any turnaround in this segment will have a significant impact on the insurance industry’s expansion in the country.

According to Vijayan, the total premium — that include the premiums of the old policies as well as the new ones collected in 2013-14 by all the 24 life insurance companies — stood at Rs 2.87 lakh crore.

He said the focus was back into the group policies   in the life insurance segment, while traditional life products were showing good  traction of late.

In the non-life segment, the growth in total business premium collections during 2013-14 was around 13 per cent at Rs 63,000 crore.  However, he cautioned that the audited numbers might vary from the preliminary data. The non-life sector, which include health, motor, fire among other sub-segments was growing in double digits even while the life insurance industry had shown a de-growth in the last couple of years.

However, the preliminary figures indicated some slowdown in the non-life business in the last year. According to the previous data, the general insurance companies collected Rs 61,885 crore in total premium in the period between April, 2012 and February, 2013.

“Except the health insurance,  other categories of non-life business have been closely linked to the trends in industrial production,” Vijayan said on the sidelines of the Irda’s Foundation Day celebrations. He also said the health insurance would lead the insurance sector’s growth in the current year.

Responding to a question on the banks’ response to the change in the distribution model in bankassurance, Vijayan said the regulator was trying to push the ‘’open architecture” model, where each bank could sell the products of multiple companies..